Pretty cool use of the Nintendo Wii...
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Following up on story in Video Games...
As a gamer since about age 6, I found Rich's incites into the state of storytelling in video games to be very fascinating. While fun gameplay definitely comes first for me in my game choices, the fact is that with the budget and work going into current games there is no excuse for mediocre storytelling. I think that the line between games where story is an important element and the games where it is not a critical part of the game is becoming more defined. While story can be essential in a modern, open ended 3D adventure or in an experimental game such as Heavy Rain, in more arcade minded independent games story has reverted to its former simplicity. As Rich mentioned, the role of story in games was initially just to give purpose to whatever goals you achieve in the game. I look forward to seeing the new ways that developers might approach story as experimental games are becoming more and more prevalent as downloadable content on the current generation of game consoles.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Allan Kaprow - Happenings in the New York Scene
Happening: performance or event, many times featuring interactive components
- How does the Happening compare to other types of interactivity?
- Artist and crowd equally important in event, audience is involved in some capacity
- Often were staged to make statement, political or otherwise
- Influential to the development of new media via new realm of performance/event
- How does the Happening compare to other types of interactivity?
- Artist and crowd equally important in event, audience is involved in some capacity
- Often were staged to make statement, political or otherwise
- Influential to the development of new media via new realm of performance/event
J.C.R. Licklider - Man-Computer Symbiosis
- ARPA: organized to head military's space program.
- Led by J.C.R. Licklider
- Background in engineering and behavioral science
- A force in promoting education of technology and pushing boundaries of computing
- Military + Academia
- ARPAnet: prototype of concepts that led to internet
- Very true: "in a few years, man will be able to communicate more effectively through a machine than face to face"
- Led by J.C.R. Licklider
- Background in engineering and behavioral science
- A force in promoting education of technology and pushing boundaries of computing
- Military + Academia
- ARPAnet: prototype of concepts that led to internet
- Very true: "in a few years, man will be able to communicate more effectively through a machine than face to face"
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Norbert Weiner - Man, Machines, and the World About
- Wiener’s cybernetics research was a product of Bush’s military-industrial complex
- Beginning of terminology such as "cyborg" and "cyberspace"
- Modern usage of terms: input, output, feedback as applied to humans rather than only machines
- studied "communications and control in the animal and machine."
- worked on WWII projects
- changing notions of SELF vs. SYSTEM
- against military funding
- Beginning of terminology such as "cyborg" and "cyberspace"
- Modern usage of terms: input, output, feedback as applied to humans rather than only machines
- studied "communications and control in the animal and machine."
- worked on WWII projects
- changing notions of SELF vs. SYSTEM
- against military funding
Alan Turing - Computing Machinery and Intelligence
- Computers viewed early on as number crunchers
- not immediately obvious that computers could be useful in manipulating words
- Turing test: can computer pass as human?
- challenged notions of human intelligence: if a computer can do it, is it an intelligent task?
- Concept of a thinking computer
- Introduced idea that computer-Human communication using language could be possible
- precursor to text based computing vs. simple numerical representations
- not immediately obvious that computers could be useful in manipulating words
- Turing test: can computer pass as human?
- challenged notions of human intelligence: if a computer can do it, is it an intelligent task?
- Concept of a thinking computer
- Introduced idea that computer-Human communication using language could be possible
- precursor to text based computing vs. simple numerical representations
Vannevar Bush - As We May Think
- MIT graduate
- One of key players involved with the Manhattan Project
- Not a warlike guy, despite his profession
- Memex: proto-computer like organizer concept for "individual use"
- "Associative connections that attempt to reflect the 'intricate web of trails carred by the cells of the brain.'"
- Memex was a critical seed in development of what is now personal computer
- There are still ideas within Bush's documents that have yet to be fully realized
- One of key players involved with the Manhattan Project
- Not a warlike guy, despite his profession
- Memex: proto-computer like organizer concept for "individual use"
- "Associative connections that attempt to reflect the 'intricate web of trails carred by the cells of the brain.'"
- Memex was a critical seed in development of what is now personal computer
- There are still ideas within Bush's documents that have yet to be fully realized
The Garden of the Forking Paths by Jorge Louis Borges
In this story, Borges presents the concept of a "hypertext novel" in which there are multiple storylines/paths.
Basic concept behind early text adventure computer games
Notion of a non linear narrative TEXT much like the possibilities that computers bring to the medium of text.
Basic concept behind early text adventure computer games
Notion of a non linear narrative TEXT much like the possibilities that computers bring to the medium of text.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
New Media Reader Introduction and From Borges to HTML
Borges and Bush: Two paths of thought that converged to create new technological view of the world fueled by endless possibilities.
more organic perspective vs. engineer perspective
Birth of a completely new medium as opposed to improving on an old one: "The 'augmented institution" as he saw it would not change into a 'bigger and faster snail' but would become a new species, like a cat, with new sensory abilities and entirely new powers."
1980s: Apple computers open up creative doors with more accessible GUI and creatively minded paint software.
1990s: internet opens up more doors for
New media can bridge the gap between human experience and digital data i.e. interfaces that allow human to control computer via visual, or other means, such as GUI.
Progression of computer capabilities mirrors other technologies. Transition from still image to film parallels the same developments that occurred in these mediums in digital form.
Personal computers have taken over many functions that previously took place in the analog domain, such as animation, sound and music editing, visual arts and synthesis. While the computer aids the user in these functions and makes many tasks more efficient, in most of these functions the computer does not react.
"The early Web (i.e. before it came to be dominated by big commercial portals towards the end of the 1990s) also practically implemented a radically horizontal, non-hierarchical model of human existence in which no idea, no ideology, and no value system can dominate the rest--thus providing a perfect metaphor for a new post-Cold War sensibility"
The digital realm allows many new functions that were not possible before the availability of computers but at the same time seems to most commonly replicate functions that take place in the real world. New media seems to be the study of this concept with the goal of progressing the lineage of technology into new realms that are only possible via technological advances, but also simply new methods of interpreting technology.
more organic perspective vs. engineer perspective
Birth of a completely new medium as opposed to improving on an old one: "The 'augmented institution" as he saw it would not change into a 'bigger and faster snail' but would become a new species, like a cat, with new sensory abilities and entirely new powers."
1980s: Apple computers open up creative doors with more accessible GUI and creatively minded paint software.
1990s: internet opens up more doors for
New media can bridge the gap between human experience and digital data i.e. interfaces that allow human to control computer via visual, or other means, such as GUI.
Progression of computer capabilities mirrors other technologies. Transition from still image to film parallels the same developments that occurred in these mediums in digital form.
Personal computers have taken over many functions that previously took place in the analog domain, such as animation, sound and music editing, visual arts and synthesis. While the computer aids the user in these functions and makes many tasks more efficient, in most of these functions the computer does not react.
"The early Web (i.e. before it came to be dominated by big commercial portals towards the end of the 1990s) also practically implemented a radically horizontal, non-hierarchical model of human existence in which no idea, no ideology, and no value system can dominate the rest--thus providing a perfect metaphor for a new post-Cold War sensibility"
The digital realm allows many new functions that were not possible before the availability of computers but at the same time seems to most commonly replicate functions that take place in the real world. New media seems to be the study of this concept with the goal of progressing the lineage of technology into new realms that are only possible via technological advances, but also simply new methods of interpreting technology.
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