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Faculty Seminar on Interactive Media: Theory and Technologies of Representation Proposal to Humanities Center for 1996-97 The idea for this seminar flows directly from an informally organized discussion group that has been meeting every week since the Spring Quarter 1995. The Interactive Media Group (IMG) was formed by a group of faculty, students, and professionals interested in theoretical and practical aspects of interactive media. The group was inspired by some members' recent experiences in tackling these issues: Larry Friedlander and Barbara Hayes-Roth's course on Interactive Narrative and Artificial Intelligence; Tim Lenoir's courses on "BodyWorks" and "Virtuality"; and Terry Winograd and Marc Davis' course on Phenomenology, Cognition and Computers; and Decker Walker's reading group on interactive media. We have been engaged in a preliminary study of issues relevant to interactive media, hoping to find our way toward a constructive theory of how people compose and inhabit interactive media. We are now readdy to expand the focus of our discussions with more structured topics and with formats which include guest speakers, panels, debate topics, and special demonstrations. As an experiment, we have been recording the groups discussions, comments, and readings on the World Wide Web. We would like to explore further this use of the Web by creating a dynamically updated journal which will reflect our ongoing deliberations but which will also invite participation from both within and without the university. FOCUS Our approaches draw from a wide variety of fields: linguistics, artificial intelligence, literary theory, cognitive science, mathematics, performance art, music, and design. We plan to explore a variety of theoretical topics that have important but not always obvious connections to the formation of new kinds of cyberspaces and narrative structures. In particular, we are interested in * developing models of media representation, such as algebraic video and structured texts, which offer alternatives to traditional time-based or graph structures; * articulating the dramatic and narrative theories embodied in emerging interface environments; * investigating the symbolic architecture of cyberspaces and the influence of architecture and urban design on systems and interfaces; * tracing the connection of distributed models of cognition and other systems with current socio-political and communication theories. What seems most interesting to us is the way certain fields are yielding unexpected and fruitful clues for practical developments in technology. So, for example, theater may provide models for user-interface design, topology and geometry for media structures, and urban architecture for cyberspace design. The seminar will have two aspects: (1) regular weekly sessions in which we will present and discuss prepared topics, and (2) a cybernetic space in the form of a shared website which will hold references and media contributed by local and remote participants. In a typical session, a speaker will discuss a theoretical issue and situate it with respect to some design problems. We might have a series of prepared responses to the presentation, as well as some discussion of the implications of the theoretical approach for issues in design and technology. The discussion will be presented on the Web and further responses from the community will be invited. The website will also contain a bibliography and selections from the readings. We anticipate that our interdisciplinary approach will draw participants from diverse domains, and yield reconceptualizations of media and action that will be useful in practical situations. The seminar's World Wide Web location is http://www-leland/~xinwei/pub/img/img.html. This site may be browsed by anyone interested in our seminar. It currently contains, (1) an Agenda of topics and speakers (2) a Discussion trail -- transcripts of seminar discussion (3) a Bibliography -- a list of "readings" with WWW links to some full media (4) Sites -- WWW links to affiliate seminars and installations in other institutions TOPICS AND SPEAKERS IN 1995-96 This year the IMG seminar has begun a survey of work in several fields. The set of past, current and proposed topics is described in the WWW page http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~xinwei/pub/img/topics.html but here is a summary of topics and recent speakers. We began by exploring participant interests in narrative, digital media representation, pictorial representation, theater, digital video, and documentary. John Keeling discussed hypertext and narrative structures. Dianne Middlebrook presented a case study of a multimedia biography of Tipton. Sha Xin Wei gave an introduction to representations of digital media. Barbara Tversky presented a broad survey of research on pictorial representations and diagrammatic communication. Bob Horn previewed his book on Visual Language (image+ text + shape). Larry Friedlander presented some interactive theater projects with the MIT Media Lab. Invited speaker Glorianna Davenport from the Media Lab spoke about novel ways to make evolving interactive documentary video. Charles Kerns summarized five years of research at the Apple Media Lab on digital video as social forms. Most recently, invited speaker Daniel Potter introduced us to a study of the essay film and mnemonics in the presence of electronic networked media. Please see the World Wide Web site's Bibliography page for a partial list of references cited in our disucssions. (http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~xinwei/pub/img/readings.html) FUTURE PLANS For the future, we would like to begin work on two fronts: (1) a multi-faceted critique of interactive media and design; (2) a joint construction of a multimedia artifact, perhaps for a network audience. We will start the first project this spring term (1996) by weaving together the several threads of analysis running through the year. To support this work, we will do a close study of some references from our Bibliography. The form may be some appropriately multi-vocal "document" springing from our current website. The constructive project may take the form of a socio-literary experiment, depending on the interests of IMG participants who will continue in next year's incarnation of the seminar. ATTENDEES 1995-96 This is a list of people who have attended the seminar since September 1995. Drew Bamford Alan Bush Marcelo Clerici-Arias Margaret Crane Gayle Curtis Judith Anne Dolan Doug Felt R. J. Fleck Ross Frank Larry Friedlander Tom Hare Richard Holeton Bob Horn Micahel Irmscher Natalie Jeremijenko John Keeling Charles Kerns Engineering Philosophy Economics Digital Pictuers CDR / RR&D Center office Drama Taligent CCRMA History English Asian Studies and Comparative Literature Writing and Critical Thinking Information Mapping, Inc. German Studies Center for Design Research English Media Center [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Karen Lee Larry Leifer Claude M Reichard Joss March Diane Middlebrook Caroline Nastro Eva Neuberg Greg Niemeyer Daniel Potter Eva Prionas Benjamin Robinson Janice Ross Christopher Salter Sarah Sarojini Jain Richard Schoch Sha Xin Wei Barbara Tversky Bill Verplank Decker Walker Michelle Wang Ann Weinstone Meg Worley Maria Yang Patience Young Paul Yung-Wei Chong TOK Design Mechanical Engineering Writing and Critical Thinking English English Drama Religious Studies Art Interval Research Linguistics Modern Thought and Literature Athl Pe & Recreation Drama History of Consciousness, UCSC Drama Human-Computer Sys. Arch./SULAIR Psychology Interval Research Education Computer Science Modern Thought and Literature Comparative Literature Center for Design Research Art Gallery and Museum Symbolic Systems [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]