Digital Media Dr. Jim Rowan ITEC 2110. Open Book Question! What is one book that is meant to be read...

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Digital Media Dr. Jim Rowan ITEC 2110

Transcript of Digital Media Dr. Jim Rowan ITEC 2110. Open Book Question! What is one book that is meant to be read...

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 window

Click “PDF”

Then select “Save as pdf”

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…

– 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=xFAWR6hzZek

So…Different Media?

Different Affordances!• Affordances… a term from ecological

psychology borrowed by Don Norman• different things afford different interaction

• 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– 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

• 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

• 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!

• 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 formsHitchcock told the story visually, long sweeping scenesTarrentino 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– 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?