New Media Reader 649 - 735

Cardboard Computers: Mocking-It-Up or Hands-On the Future

Pelle Ehn and Morten Kyng published this essay on the human use of comuters. They noticed that the programming language has become more complicated, so the ideal that Alan Kay and Adele Goldeberg stated has not been achieved. Ehn and Kyng have noticed a trend that is heading in the opposite direction; one where programming is more company driven, than for individual users. They created “Utopia”; a project that takes the approach of working with users to design new media tools. This seems like an obvious step, but their focus is on human-relations, and has had a strong effect on the “usability” of computers.


The Lessons of Lucasfilm’s Habitat

Chip Morningstar and F. Randall Farmer created one of the first interactive virtual environment called “Habitat”. This program first showed us the experience of the simulated world, and taught us many lessons in online interaction. This essay hits on two important approaches to new media, and that is the computer-mediated communications, and virtual environments. These guys helped create the online gaming world, which is something I grew up a part of. I still love getting into the cyber world and shooting at each other. This essay shows us the origin of all that.


Seeing and Writing

Bolter points out the importance of understanding typography and how computers relate to the movement of writing. He explores the concept of how new media influences our concepts of reading and writing. He observes that while electronic spreadsheets are native to the computer, the program itself relates to structures that are evident in paper accounting practices. This is very true. I am using this program in a view that allows me to see the edges of the paper, so I know where I’m writing on the page. Bolter states that it is important to study the history of typography, and to adjoining better-understood territory and new media.


You Say You Want a Revolution? Hypertext and the Laws of Media

Moulthrop uses McLuhan’s plan for a four-part media interrogation, he subjects the idea of a hypertext to scrutiny. He points out that the hypertext does not replace the book- it’s more like a replacement for TV, stating that middle-school and high-schoolers are spending the time on the computer rather than on the TV. The four questions from McLuhan that he poses in this essay are: What does hypertext enhance or intensify? What does hypertext displace or render obsolete? What does hypertext retrieve that was previously obsolete? And what does hypertext become when taken to its limit? This essay is a very in depth discussion on the hypertext, and brings up many interesting observations on the internet we have today.



The End of Books

Robert Coover explores the idea that the hypertext will destroy the book. He actually has taught classes in writing in the form of a hypertext. This is a very interesting idea, and I don’t think I’ve ever read, or would want to read, a story in this form. His classes only lasted for two years, from 1990 to 1992, and he declared that the “golden-age” of hypertext fiction is over, and perhaps there will be an enjoyable silver age. I think that new forms of literary media will appear, but I have yet to see anything that rivals the book publications. Maybe there just hasn’t been enough money put into pursuing new literary styles, but I hope it doesn’t end books altogether, I rather like the old fashioned hard-cover novel.

Time Frames

Scott McCloud has written the blueprint for all of comic writing, which is why he is proclaimed the “Aristotle” of comics. He describes the underlying structures and techniques that make comics work. His explanation is complete, and comprehensible. What I like best about this essay is that it is written in comic form. He not only describes how the different techniques work, but he shows directly in the essay how they work. This work shows that this form of media does indeed have conventional rules and methods. I really enjoyed reading this essay. It really taught me a lot about what I look at as I read a comic, and how time relates to comics.