1991-Pelle Ehn (Swedish professor of design) and Morten Kyng (Danish professor of "pervasive computing") led the Scandinavian "Utopia" project which worked with the user to design new interfaces for computer software. Their work, chronicled in the essay "Cardboard Computers" influenced the design of all software which followed.
1991-Chip Morningstar (developer of software and large-scale interactive gaming communities) and Randall Farmer (also a pionneer in the field of computer gaming communities) developed Habitat, the precursor to modern "Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games." This project is described in detail in "The Lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat."
1991-J. David Bolter (1951-present). American professor of communication and culture. He, along with John B. Smith and Michael Joyce created the "Storyspace" system for writing and editing hypertext fiction. His essay "Seeing and Writing" discusses the effects of technology on the writing process.
1991-Stuart Moulthrop. American author and innovator of electronic literature and hypertext fiction. His essay "You Say You Want a Revolution?" describes the role of hypertext in relation to other media.
1991-Robert Coover (1932-present). American professor and author of "fabulation and metafiction." His article "The End of Books" advocates hypertext writing and fiction.
1993-Scott McCloud (1960-present). American cartoonist. His book "Understanding Comics" is a comic which explains the "neglected art" of comics. This was basically the first study of the medium, it started the shift toward a more serious regard for comics as an art form.
Reaction:
Phew, 1991 was a big year.
We all know how I hate gaming communities like Ultima Online. I don't understand why these things need to exist. But the work of Chip Morningstar and Randall Farmer took me back a bit, mainly because they mentioned Palace, a really early virtual world I was into for a minute in junior high. It was basically like instant messaging with avatars, where instead of chat rooms as a link and a new screen, you moved your character into a virtual room. I got bored with it really quickly though, I prefer the real world (you couldn't make your character do very much either).
I don't think hypertext as we know it could ever replace television, it's just not user-friendly enough. The book as we know it might someday cease to exist, however, the linear novel will never die.
I can't believe I haven't heard of Scott McCloud! I live for graphic novels, and I think Dan Clowes is possibly the greatest storyteller of all time. McClouds comic in the book was so witty, explaining comics with a comic--genius! His representation of himself also reminded me of that tutorial that early macs always came with, you know, the guy sitting at the desk teaching you how to use the mouse and create folders and documents and other basic computer activities.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Sunday, November 26, 2006
the line of time
-1986 Langdon Winner. American political theorist and professor of science and technology. His paper "Mythinformation" adressed "major focuses upon social and political issues that surround modern technological change."
-1987 Lucy Suchman. American professor of sociology and former manager of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. Her book Plans and Situated Actions critiqued early artificial intelligence programs and ultimately led to changes "within the language of AI."
-1988 Michael Joyce (1945-present). American English professor and writer (and critic) of hypertext fiction and electronic literature. In "Siren Shapes" Joyce advocates the use of hypertext for educational uses, and draws a distinction between "constructive" and "exploratory" hypertexts.
-1988 Bill Nichols. American historian and theoretician of documentary film. In his essay, "The Work of Culture in the Age of Cybernetic Systems," Nichols discussed new media simulations and the indications of modern society's tendency to "work against the system" when engaged in these simulations.
-1990 Lynn Hershman. American artist and filmmaker. She created the first interactive video art installation. In "Fantasy Beyond Control," Hershman discusses her next unprecedented step in interactive video art--the narrative CD-ROM.
Reactions:
I think it's amazing that digital media, so new that we still don't quite know what to do with them, began changing the way society thinks and functions so soon after their creation. Not only did these new media change society, but on such a large scale that people noticed and began writing papers about it.
I'm not really sure what Michael Joyce was talking about. Whenever I think of hypertext novels I just think of choose your own adventure books...I can't get past that.
I loved Bill Nichols' ideas, and the example before the text about people putting the simulated baby in the microwave. We all do that! I remember when I got the Sims with the expansion pack that came with a coin-operated "massaging" heart-shaped bed (you know, cheesy motel style), first you try to see if you can make the man and the woman have sex. Of course they do, so then you make them fight and see if they'll still do it when they're mad at each other. Then, you introduce a new female neighbor and see if the wife will have sex with her. Ultimately they become lesbians and kick the husband out. Before I got the bed, I spent hours trying to see if the husband would kill himself if I made him depressed enough.
Aw, I remember CD-ROMS. They don't even call them that anymore do they? We just use the term "disk" and assign new formats to it every year but we never change the name. In any case, I'd like to see some of Lynn Hershman's CD-ROMs.
-1987 Lucy Suchman. American professor of sociology and former manager of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. Her book Plans and Situated Actions critiqued early artificial intelligence programs and ultimately led to changes "within the language of AI."
-1988 Michael Joyce (1945-present). American English professor and writer (and critic) of hypertext fiction and electronic literature. In "Siren Shapes" Joyce advocates the use of hypertext for educational uses, and draws a distinction between "constructive" and "exploratory" hypertexts.
-1988 Bill Nichols. American historian and theoretician of documentary film. In his essay, "The Work of Culture in the Age of Cybernetic Systems," Nichols discussed new media simulations and the indications of modern society's tendency to "work against the system" when engaged in these simulations.
-1990 Lynn Hershman. American artist and filmmaker. She created the first interactive video art installation. In "Fantasy Beyond Control," Hershman discusses her next unprecedented step in interactive video art--the narrative CD-ROM.
Reactions:
I think it's amazing that digital media, so new that we still don't quite know what to do with them, began changing the way society thinks and functions so soon after their creation. Not only did these new media change society, but on such a large scale that people noticed and began writing papers about it.
I'm not really sure what Michael Joyce was talking about. Whenever I think of hypertext novels I just think of choose your own adventure books...I can't get past that.
I loved Bill Nichols' ideas, and the example before the text about people putting the simulated baby in the microwave. We all do that! I remember when I got the Sims with the expansion pack that came with a coin-operated "massaging" heart-shaped bed (you know, cheesy motel style), first you try to see if you can make the man and the woman have sex. Of course they do, so then you make them fight and see if they'll still do it when they're mad at each other. Then, you introduce a new female neighbor and see if the wife will have sex with her. Ultimately they become lesbians and kick the husband out. Before I got the bed, I spent hours trying to see if the husband would kill himself if I made him depressed enough.
Aw, I remember CD-ROMS. They don't even call them that anymore do they? We just use the term "disk" and assign new formats to it every year but we never change the name. In any case, I'd like to see some of Lynn Hershman's CD-ROMs.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
the irrepressible timeline
-1981 Ted Nelson's Literary Machines. This is "a complete outline" of his Xanadu project, an archiving, information-sharing computer network--basically his idea of the world wide web.
-1982 Bill Viola (1951-present)American video artist. His essay "Will There Be Condominiums in Data Space?" discusses the philosophy behind his unprecedented work with the video medium.
-1983 Ben Bagdikian (1920-present)Armenian-born (American) educator and journalist. He originally published The Media Monopoly in 1983, and accurately predicted the current reign of mega-corporations over various media. In the first edition, he cited 50 corporations which dominated all mass-media, in 2000, he cited 6.
-1983 Ben Shneiderman (1947-present) American computer scientist/pioneer in the field of human/computer interaction. In his article "Direct Manipulation" he describes a user interface system which is dependent on graphics, rather than programming languages--more like a video game. This idea defined the term "user-friendly."
-1984 Sherry Turkle (1948-present) American clinical psychologist and professor of science and technology at MIT. In her book The Second Self she explored why children play video games and how it affects the way they learn about and experience the world. During a time when video games had reached unprecedented levels of both popularity and criticism, Turkle argued that they might actually be...therapeutic...
-1985 Donna Haraway (1944-present) American professor of feminist theory and "technoscience." Her Cyborg Manifesto united feminism and technology for the first time.
-1985 Richard Stallman (1953-present) American activist and hacker. In 1985 he founded the GNU Project--a free unix-like system created in response to AT&T's decision to charge people for using Unix. Stallman has been a vocal advocate of free software ever since.
-1986 Terry Winograd (1946-present) American professor of computer science. Fernando Flores (1943-present)Chilean philosopher and senator. Their book Understanding Computers and Cognition, though some see it as anti-A.I., proposes simply that we use computers as extensions of ourselves, tools, and only employ AI to the few situations where it would be appropriate to do so.
-1986 (1991) Brenda Laurel. American human/computer interaction researcher and software designer. Both in her 1986 thesis and her 1991 book, Computers as Theatre, Laurel proposes that Aristotle's Poetics is the key to understanding computers.
-1986 Jan L. Bordewijk and Ben van Kaam. (I couldn't find info about them) Their essay "Towards a New Classification of Tele-Information Services" begins to classify various forms if digital communication that emerged with the rise of the internet. Basically, they created classifications for types of media which had not previously existed.
Reaction:
I don't understand why Ted Nelson hates the world wide web. I'm sure it could have been done better but this is the way it is, so don't cry about it man--find ways to improve what already exists--that's what Richard Stallman is doing. I see both sides to the free media argument though, I'm broke, thus I would like everything on the internet to be free...but people also gotta eat...
Bill Viola is amazing.
I have known about Ben Bagdikian's ideas, not through him, but through a documentary entitled "The Merchants of Cool," probably since I was in high school. Today I believe that there are only 5 companies running everything, but I could be mistaken and I don't even remember their names. I remember when the FCC changed the rules about how many "objective" media outlets a private entity could own and it freaked me out. I enjoy the fact that with the internet every individual has a public forum for their own media, but we still need to keep news out of the hands of politicians, corrupt businessmen and special interest groups.
Sherry Turkle's ideas are echoed in a book I just read for my history of media class: Everything Bad is Good for You by Stephen Johnson--who is a faculty member at NYU. It's funny because now, after more than 20 years of bashing video games, the idea that they're not all that bad for you is becoming more current.
As for Brenda Laurel, I'm sorry but I'd be a goddess over a cyborg any day. But for me it would be more about having that kind of power in modern society than about nostalgia for womens' role in ancient mythology.
-1982 Bill Viola (1951-present)American video artist. His essay "Will There Be Condominiums in Data Space?" discusses the philosophy behind his unprecedented work with the video medium.
-1983 Ben Bagdikian (1920-present)Armenian-born (American) educator and journalist. He originally published The Media Monopoly in 1983, and accurately predicted the current reign of mega-corporations over various media. In the first edition, he cited 50 corporations which dominated all mass-media, in 2000, he cited 6.
-1983 Ben Shneiderman (1947-present) American computer scientist/pioneer in the field of human/computer interaction. In his article "Direct Manipulation" he describes a user interface system which is dependent on graphics, rather than programming languages--more like a video game. This idea defined the term "user-friendly."
-1984 Sherry Turkle (1948-present) American clinical psychologist and professor of science and technology at MIT. In her book The Second Self she explored why children play video games and how it affects the way they learn about and experience the world. During a time when video games had reached unprecedented levels of both popularity and criticism, Turkle argued that they might actually be...therapeutic...
-1985 Donna Haraway (1944-present) American professor of feminist theory and "technoscience." Her Cyborg Manifesto united feminism and technology for the first time.
-1985 Richard Stallman (1953-present) American activist and hacker. In 1985 he founded the GNU Project--a free unix-like system created in response to AT&T's decision to charge people for using Unix. Stallman has been a vocal advocate of free software ever since.
-1986 Terry Winograd (1946-present) American professor of computer science. Fernando Flores (1943-present)Chilean philosopher and senator. Their book Understanding Computers and Cognition, though some see it as anti-A.I., proposes simply that we use computers as extensions of ourselves, tools, and only employ AI to the few situations where it would be appropriate to do so.
-1986 (1991) Brenda Laurel. American human/computer interaction researcher and software designer. Both in her 1986 thesis and her 1991 book, Computers as Theatre, Laurel proposes that Aristotle's Poetics is the key to understanding computers.
-1986 Jan L. Bordewijk and Ben van Kaam. (I couldn't find info about them) Their essay "Towards a New Classification of Tele-Information Services" begins to classify various forms if digital communication that emerged with the rise of the internet. Basically, they created classifications for types of media which had not previously existed.
Reaction:
I don't understand why Ted Nelson hates the world wide web. I'm sure it could have been done better but this is the way it is, so don't cry about it man--find ways to improve what already exists--that's what Richard Stallman is doing. I see both sides to the free media argument though, I'm broke, thus I would like everything on the internet to be free...but people also gotta eat...
Bill Viola is amazing.
I have known about Ben Bagdikian's ideas, not through him, but through a documentary entitled "The Merchants of Cool," probably since I was in high school. Today I believe that there are only 5 companies running everything, but I could be mistaken and I don't even remember their names. I remember when the FCC changed the rules about how many "objective" media outlets a private entity could own and it freaked me out. I enjoy the fact that with the internet every individual has a public forum for their own media, but we still need to keep news out of the hands of politicians, corrupt businessmen and special interest groups.
Sherry Turkle's ideas are echoed in a book I just read for my history of media class: Everything Bad is Good for You by Stephen Johnson--who is a faculty member at NYU. It's funny because now, after more than 20 years of bashing video games, the idea that they're not all that bad for you is becoming more current.
As for Brenda Laurel, I'm sorry but I'd be a goddess over a cyborg any day. But for me it would be more about having that kind of power in modern society than about nostalgia for womens' role in ancient mythology.
Monday, November 06, 2006
latest timeline reactions
Augusto Boal's work reminded me both of my own experience using theatre to prevent teen pregnancy prevention in impoverished areas of Honolulu, and also of that new Robin Williams movie, "Man of the Year." How exactly do you run for office, but not seriously, and then win?
As for Negroponte's work, I can't imagine architecture without computers. I'm sure it's still taught the old-fashioned way, with t-squares and all that just to make sure people know what they're doing (the same way we're required to learn math without a calculator before they let us use one), but it seems to me that modern architecture could not be designed without computers.
I couldn't find as much information about Weizenbaum's Eliza program as I would have liked. How did he implement it in such a way that people opened up? Did they know it was just a computer? What was his test group? I agree that we shouldn't let machines make important decisions for us, but I'm sure that in some cases we do, I'm just struggling to think of an example.
I didn't really understand the Deleuze and Guattari's book. I know they had to invent a new word to describe it, and all the strange words in it seemed much shiftier than the "language" employed in "A Clockwork Orange" which is still linnear. I just feel like it would be a chore to read the whole thing.
As for Negroponte's work, I can't imagine architecture without computers. I'm sure it's still taught the old-fashioned way, with t-squares and all that just to make sure people know what they're doing (the same way we're required to learn math without a calculator before they let us use one), but it seems to me that modern architecture could not be designed without computers.
I couldn't find as much information about Weizenbaum's Eliza program as I would have liked. How did he implement it in such a way that people opened up? Did they know it was just a computer? What was his test group? I agree that we shouldn't let machines make important decisions for us, but I'm sure that in some cases we do, I'm just struggling to think of an example.
I didn't really understand the Deleuze and Guattari's book. I know they had to invent a new word to describe it, and all the strange words in it seemed much shiftier than the "language" employed in "A Clockwork Orange" which is still linnear. I just feel like it would be a chore to read the whole thing.
more timeline
1974-Augusto Boal (1931-present) Brazilian theatrical director, writer, and politician.
Interactive performance artist who used his interactive techniques to help the oppressed people of South America. These techniques are described in his 1974 book, "Theatre of the Oppressed." He is the only new media pioneer to have been jailed for practicing his art. In 1992 he ran for political office "as an act of theatre" and won, but was not reelected in 1996.
1975-Nicholas Negroponte (1943-present) American civil architect and computer scientist. He founded the Architecture Machine Group and the Media Lab at MIT and was one of the first architects to use computers and he was an innovator in the field of new media as a tool for architectural design. His "Soft Architecture Machines" describes methods developed by Negroponte and his collaborators at MIT.
1976-Joseph Weizenbaum (1923-present) German-born professor of computer science at MIT. His "Computer Power and Human Reason" is a result of his experiences with his AI program, ELIZA, which was the first to use natural language processing to interact with people. This experience led him to become one of the leading critics of artificial intelligence.
1977-Myron Krueger (1942-present) American new media artist. He was one of the first to research and work in the areas of "responsive environments" and "artificial reality" (i.e. virtual reality).
1977-Alan Kay (1940-present) and Adele Goldberg (1945-present). American computer scientists who co-wrote the essay "Personal Dynamic Media" which accurately predicted the future of the "notebook" or laptop computer.
1980-Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) and Felix Guattari (1930-1992) were a French philosopher and psychoanalyst who co-wrote several works including "A thousand Plateaus"--for which they invented the genre/concept rhizomatic. Which as I understand it is a nonlinear form of writing or hypertext with a unique syntax.
1980-Seymour Papert (1928-present) South-African born MIT mathemetician, computer scientist and educator. In the 1960s he invented a philosphy of education which he called constructionism, and as the home computer became more common he began to see it as a powerful tool for learning. He invented the LOGO programming language which allowed children to control the computer and their own educational experience. His book, "Mindstorms" describes the role of the computer in constructionist education.
1980-Richard A. Bolt (?) American computer scientist. He was a member of Negroponte's Architecture Machine group at MIT. He designed the "Put-That-There" interface which was the first "multimodal" interface--it used speech and gesture input, as opposed to just typing.
Interactive performance artist who used his interactive techniques to help the oppressed people of South America. These techniques are described in his 1974 book, "Theatre of the Oppressed." He is the only new media pioneer to have been jailed for practicing his art. In 1992 he ran for political office "as an act of theatre" and won, but was not reelected in 1996.
1975-Nicholas Negroponte (1943-present) American civil architect and computer scientist. He founded the Architecture Machine Group and the Media Lab at MIT and was one of the first architects to use computers and he was an innovator in the field of new media as a tool for architectural design. His "Soft Architecture Machines" describes methods developed by Negroponte and his collaborators at MIT.
1976-Joseph Weizenbaum (1923-present) German-born professor of computer science at MIT. His "Computer Power and Human Reason" is a result of his experiences with his AI program, ELIZA, which was the first to use natural language processing to interact with people. This experience led him to become one of the leading critics of artificial intelligence.
1977-Myron Krueger (1942-present) American new media artist. He was one of the first to research and work in the areas of "responsive environments" and "artificial reality" (i.e. virtual reality).
1977-Alan Kay (1940-present) and Adele Goldberg (1945-present). American computer scientists who co-wrote the essay "Personal Dynamic Media" which accurately predicted the future of the "notebook" or laptop computer.
1980-Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) and Felix Guattari (1930-1992) were a French philosopher and psychoanalyst who co-wrote several works including "A thousand Plateaus"--for which they invented the genre/concept rhizomatic. Which as I understand it is a nonlinear form of writing or hypertext with a unique syntax.
1980-Seymour Papert (1928-present) South-African born MIT mathemetician, computer scientist and educator. In the 1960s he invented a philosphy of education which he called constructionism, and as the home computer became more common he began to see it as a powerful tool for learning. He invented the LOGO programming language which allowed children to control the computer and their own educational experience. His book, "Mindstorms" describes the role of the computer in constructionist education.
1980-Richard A. Bolt (?) American computer scientist. He was a member of Negroponte's Architecture Machine group at MIT. He designed the "Put-That-There" interface which was the first "multimodal" interface--it used speech and gesture input, as opposed to just typing.
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