SM2215 Fundamentals of New Media and Interactivity Mark Green School of Creative Media

Introduction  What is this course about? Its not a programming course !!!! Its not a programming course !!!! Explore new media and interactivity: Explore new media and interactivity: look at different types of new medialook at different types of new media try to classify the different genrestry to classify the different genres see what sort of theory there issee what sort of theory there is explore how new media is structuredexplore how new media is structured examine some of the design theoryexamine some of the design theory

Course Structure  Course is divided into two parts 1. Survey of new media Examine the different types of new media, the different genresExamine the different types of new media, the different genres Examine the history of the different genresExamine the history of the different genres Provide background for other coursesProvide background for other courses 2. Theory and design Examine some of the theories of new mediaExamine some of the theories of new media Still in the early stages, will look at some of the key ideasStill in the early stages, will look at some of the key ideas

Assessment  Most (or all) of the assignments will be written, with the approximate weight: Assignment #115% Assignment #225% Assignment #325% Assignment #435%

Textbooks  There are no textbooks for the course, there really hasn’t been any books produced that are suitable  There are many suggested readings on the course web site:  You don’t need to read everything, a good list of references for all of your courses

What is new media?  This is a good place to start  really hard to find a good definition  term appeared around 1990, so it’s a recent idea  rapidly evolving so its hard to pin down  many people only see part of the field, limited view causes problems

What is new media?  We will return to this problem, but for now we need a “working definition”  it definitely involves technology, something to do with computers  tempting to say its digital media, which is partly correct  new media is in a digital form (most of the time), its on the computer

What is new media?  But, not all digital media is new media  most media now has a digital form, such as cinema  Is cinema new media??  Not really, it’s an old media  the same goes for photography  so being digital isn’t enough, but it’s a start

What is new media?  Interactivity is an important part  new media reacts to the viewer, the viewer can interact with it  one of the major differences between new and old media (well sort of)  but a word processor is also interactive, does that make it new media?

What is new media?  Many new media pieces use several types of media: text text sound sound images images graphics graphics video video  the use of multiple media is important

What is new media?  The use of multiple media is an important characteristic  but, early cinema had this as well  combination of text and moving images  so multiple media by itself isn’t a good test either

What is new media?  For now we will say it’s a combination of things: digital representation digital representation interactivity interactivity multiple media types multiple media types  if we find all of these characteristics then its probably new media

Examples  Games  web  internet  toys  educational software  mobile devices  VR and location based entertainment

Problems with theory  Is there a theory of new media that will help us?  Not really  new media theory isn’t well developed  most of it misses the point, authors really don’t know what’s going on

Problems with theory  It takes time to develop theory  film theory appeared many decades after the first films appeared  need time to reflect, understand what’s happening  new media changes quickly, but theory doesn’t, so they can’t keep up

Problems with theory  Most theoreticians don’t understand new media  many come from a film background, view new media as a new type of film  don’t understand the importance of interactivity, films aren’t interactive  can only see part of the picture, can’t quite fit it into existing theories

Problems with theory  Some theoreticians fall in love with the technology, which they don’t understand  can’t see the art for the technology  base their theories on misunderstandings, so they don’t make sense  technology is a bad basis, changes too quickly, far too seductive

Problems with theory  It’s your generation that will produce the real new media theory  requires a real understanding of new media  real experience with producing it, and viewing it  we will see what we can do in this course, but years from now I want one of you to produce the real theory

The role of games  Not taken seriously until very recently  the most sophisticated form of new media  everyone thought the web was new media  paid a lot of attention to it  nothing happened, the web is very sterile, not much interesting  and then the dot com bubble burst

The role of games  Little of significance came out of the web  not much theory, very little design, and not much understanding  in the background games developed genres, design theories, production processes, and made money  games are far more interesting than the web, a much richer media

The role of games  We will spend a lot of time talking about games  much more information on games  a serious design theory, well developed and well documented  many good examples that don’t date  historically many of the most significant pieces are games

Freedom  One of the themes I want to explore this term, the freedom of the viewer  New media gives the viewer the freedom to explore the work, they aren’t led through it by the artist  With a film you must follow the director’s path, with a game you can create your own path

Freedom  How much freedom do we give the viewer?  How do we get our message across when the viewer is in control?  How do we develop a narrative?  We can’t give the viewer too much freedom, we will have chaos and no real story, is this important?

Narrative vs. Experience  Should a new media piece tell a story?  Or, should it be an experience?  Many games and web sites don’t have stories, they entertain through experience  Some games do involve story and narrative, we will look at this later  How important is narrative to new media?  Or, is it a new form of narrative?