The role of the designer in today's convergent world
is akin to the role of the artists in the Renaissance who turned their
inventive minds to solve technological challenges. Knowledge of technology
and applications, awareness of historical, social and political issues,
are all factors, which must be understood in order to be effective and
compete in a constantly evolving world.
Review the various forms of media being used today. Put them in historical
perspective. Discuss these media and how they interact with each other,
how they are changing, how they might evolve. Discuss advantages and limitations
of each. Explore new technology that is being planned; explore new technology
that will be needed.
Conduct interdisciplinary research on issues of globalization in relation
to new technologies.
Study the impact of new technologies on the social, cultural and political
realms.
Understand historical patterns of the introduction and acceptance of new
technologies.
Understand the impact that changes in technology are having in the delivery
of media.
Identify how technical capabilities interact with policy and structural
constraints.
Understand how consumers are responding to changes in media.
Engage in research to identify major theories and current changes in the
media.
Digital
Montage
Interactive solutions are frequently developed as an afterthought after an
initial (linear) work is already completed. As an essential tool of New Media,
video production must consider interactivity as an integral part of the
process.
This will substantially change the way production, storyboarding etc. is
planned and executed.
Among the fundamental elements of video making it should explore a variety of
format options, such as dvd-authoring, web streaming, live video procedural
editing, and video in installation environments.
Cinema
is one of the great media convergences brought about by technology.
By synthesizing traditional arts and accessing our perceptual
apparatus
in an entirely new way it became a radically different language and
form. The development of cinema can be used as a metaphor to understand
the evolution of mass media in general.
As the 20th century drew to a close, the monumental revolution of media
convergence has caused media owners, analysts and regulators to re-think the
structure of information delivery to mass audiences.
Digital Film
One of the important technical developments for the cinema industry in recent
times has been the development of high-resolution digital film. This
development affects content development, production, creation, distribution and
viewing habits.
Storytelling and its constitutive elements are being changed by the emergence
of hypermedia.
What are the interactive possibilities of commercial films in theaters and
what opportunities/limitations are there on web/TV films? Discuss how virtual
entertainment might evolve in the near future.
Virtual
Theater
Producing and streaming on-line live performances utilizing Waldo type
virtual puppets allowing the integration of multiple dimensions of
interactive
2D and 3D technologies. Explore Internet2 multiple collaborative performances
as produced by Digital World Institute at UF. Explore the possibilities
of multiple remote user control and interaction with virtual characters
on a streaming platform.
Introduction
to Physical Computing
As the computer become diffused throughout every part of the environment we
experience a networked space as an extension of our immediate physical
environment
To explore the untapped expressive capabilities of the human body and architectural
spaces increasingly connected to information networks we engage in physical
interaction design with computational media.
Interactive
Writing
There is a complex relationship between narrative and interactivity.
Interactive design involves the creation of rule-based systems and
environments.
Although any human interaction, from an online chat to a board game
happens within a system of formal and social rules, writing scenarios
for these environments presupposes a radical shift in perspective.
The complexity of the information-space and its neural infrastructure
with
its multiple points of entry and the emergent behavior of network consciousness
poses an extraordinary challenge to the writer-designer. In linear
media,
experience is greatly predetermined by the maker. In the case of hypermedia,
an event does not reveal itself until the user interacts with it,
and
triggering the user experience is an inseparable element of the functional
system. To deal with any imaginative depth or complexity the language
must be written, the syntax and grammar invented.
Interactive
Design
Story telling, human factors, industrial and graphic design are some
of the disciplines of Interaction Design. Explore these interrelated
areas, through the mechanisms of interactive media as they apply to
diverse applications, such as personal communication and entertainment,
and to various environments, such as desktop, pervasive and mobile
using observation, conceptualization, analysis, information architecture,
visualization, prototyping and testing.
Digital game design
presents unique challenges from conceptual
to social frameworks. Games have a distinctive set of social structures
and dynamics. From single player to massively multiplayer games the
impact of this technology in the everyday life of millions of people
is unprecedented in the history of humanity.
The multitude, depth and scale of world environments, characters and
identities, emergent behaviors, gender dynamics and other issues require
a fundamental grasp of solid game design concepts from both a theoretical
and practical standpoint, coupled with an approach to programming
as a design problem
Copyright ©2004 Arturo Sinclair