Digital Media
Dr. Jim Rowan
ITEC 2110
Open Book Question!
• What is one book that is meant to be
read in a non-linear fashion?
But first…
How to make a pdf on a Mac!
Any file that is open on a Mac
Pull File down to Print
In the lower left hand corner of the print
Click “PDF”
Then select “Save
as pdf”
window
On the wiki…
• You can save (and later download)
– word files (.doc )
– powerpoint files (.ppt)
– pdf files (.pdf)
– audio files (.au .mpg & others; but not aiff)
– video files (.mov & others)
– image files (.jpg .png & others)
On the wiki…
• You can display
– Text (just type into the edit window)
– image files (.jpg .png & others)
• shortFormatHelp
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cheatsheet
• longerFormatHelp
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page
Now for Chapter 1!
Telling a story
• The telling of stories has existed as long as humans
have been on earth.
• So… how do you tell a story?
• It depends on what media you are going to use…
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Is it spoken to a live audience around a campfire?
Is it an audio recording that is played?
Is it written as text in a book or magazine?
Is it captured in a painting?
Is it told using pictures in a photo album?
Is it performed as a play on stage?
Is it recorded on video and played back?
Is it video that is streaming over the web?
Is it captured in the form of a video game?
The media you choose affects the way the
story is told
• If you are using printed text…
– you must describe things well
• If you are using still images…
– you have to tell it visually by setting the scene
• using Film/Video?
– you have moving images and sound... does the
sound emphasize the moving image…
– or the other way around?
• Video game?
– moving images accented with sound?
New Media/New Technology
Consider if you had spent your life working with the
SCROLL…
and you were asked to change to the
BOUND
BOOK...
HMMMmmmm...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFAW
R6hzZek
So…
Different Media?
Different Affordances!
• Affordances… a term from ecological
psychology borrowed by Don Norman
• different things afford different interaction
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handles to pull door open
push plates to push door open
door levers rotate to open
door knobs… twist? hmmm… I hate fake door knobs!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_psychology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Norman
Consider…
the Scroll & the Book
• The Scroll
– can’t stack scrolls like books
– can’t skip around except to beginning or end
– but… reading flows without the interruption of pages
• The Book
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you can stack them
you can level a table leg with them!
but… the reading is interrupted by page turns
add a TOC & page numbers you can skip around
with index & page #s you can go to a specific place
the Scroll, the Book and now...
• Web-based media
– you can consume it in any order you like
– links take you to a place (and back!)
• does a book do this?
– each page is in only one place… one change changes
everyone’s version
• Compare that to the Book
– doesn’t allow this universal change
– doesn’t take you back (no back button)
– but you can stick a piece of paper or a finger in it to hold
your place… or fold down the corner of the page
– you can take notes in the margins
Web-based
• yes, it does allow corrections immediately to
everyone…
• but no history is kept like you would have
with book editions
• you go back to “the same place” and it’s
different... were you mistaken or did it
change?
• http://www.archive.org/index.php
Web-based
• Did you read everything?
– A book is easy just read from front to back
– Hyperlinked web pages… no
• Web-based also affords searching
– You can Google it and find it!
Book
• A book? Not so much..
– the Index will help… if the thing you are
looking for is in the index
– Ever read a book and think...
where did I see this before?
…and then reach for the search tool?
…and then you feel kinda foolish?
New Media/New Technology
Adoption
• It takes time for conventions concerning usage to
be formed…
• Consider the history of Film...
– At first there was no sound
– then the sound was performed
– then recorded sound was played with the film
• With time… film developed its own unique forms
Hitchcock told the story visually, long sweeping scenes
Tarrentino accents the violence with rapid, quick cuts
New Media usage
follows a predictable path
• At first the new form tries to act like the old form… to
make the new stuff look more familiar
– With movies, Newsreels “copied” newspaper-like layouts
– With computers, the desktop metaphor “copied” the
office desk
• Alan Kay, XEROX PARC
– “The best way to predict the future is to invent it”
– personal computer usage exploded
– before desktop metaphor C:/ is all you got & few people
used personal computers
So…
What is Multimedia?
• A mix of audio, film, graphics
– these each address different senses
• We are just beginning to understand what the
possibilities are...
• We are just beginning to understand how to
best build multimedia stuff
– A mix of animation and live action
• 300, Sin City, Christmas Carol, Avatar
• TV series 24 and the movie Phone Booth?
– several scenes are played simultaneously
In this class
• We are interested in media forms found on
and transmitted across the Internet, how they
work and how to manipulate them
• We will build them as projects
– audio
– still images
• bitmapped
• vector graphics
– moving images
• video camera
• 3D animation
Static vs Time-based media
• Time-based
– Media that changes over time
• Film
• Video
• Audio
• Static media
– Media that doesn’t change over time
• Pages in a book
• Photos in an album
• Images on a webpage
Media Linearity
• Scroll - linear
• Book – linear… broken, but linear
– Must turn the pages
– but… Table of Contents and Index allow some
non-linearity
– encyclopedia and dictionaries are media that are
meant to be used in a non-linear manner
• Film/Videotape - linear
• DVD – primarily linear
– Chapters allow some non-linearity
Media Nonlinearity
• Supported through computer-based media
– Takes the form of hypermedia
– Web pages
• links to other pages, other parts of pages
– Interactive video games
• you go to different parts of the game depending on your
input
But is hypermedia interactive?
• Yes… and No
• Yes: Programs appear interactive, but only within
the constraints placed on the interaction by the
programmer and the interaction designer
– Myst looked like a real world but you only had a few
choices you could make
• No: Improvisation (on the part of the user) can’t
happen unless it is planned and provided for in
advance by the interaction designer and the
programmer
Interaction with computer-based
media is through a user interface
• Human Computer Interaction
– This is my academic field
– Taught here as ITEC 4130
• There are standard ways to interact with
computer-based media
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buttons
sliders
radio buttons
check boxes
pull-down menus
pop-up menus
Internet has broadened its scope
• In the ’90s the internet was seen as a source...
– you go to the internet to “look something up”
– its use was seen to have an economic
advantage…
• you only have to put stuff in one place and everybody
can get to it
• Now it is also a transmission medium
– streaming content: live radio
– streaming content: view tv shows online
In Summary
• Media is changing
• Internet is changing
• Affecting us socially
– we send email to people who are in the same room
• Giving us new capabilities ways to interact
– mosquito ring tones
• Challenging our views of legality
– it’s on the web, can I use it without permission?
• Challenging our view of appropriate behavior
– spam for instance
• Providing new uses and new interactions
• This class is about media and how it works
Questions?