Intro to Computational Media W eek 2: Properties of the Medium

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Properties of the Medium

• LCC 2700 Intro to Computational Media

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Film developed by

• Moving the camera
• Splicing the film
• Changing acting to suit the camera
• .

3
Properties of the Digital Medium

• Procedural Patterns of Rule-Based Behavior
• Participatory Patterns of Participation
• Encyclopedic Patterns of Labeling, Sorting,
  Segmentation, Categorizing, and Grouping
• Spatial Patterns of Navigation and Boundary
  Definition

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Computational Media Are Procedural

• Computer programs execute code, enact scripted
  behaviors
• The behaviors are conditional
• If monster is nearby then make sword glow.
• The behaviors are parameterized
• ( perform greeting-behavior (state-of-mind)
  (relationship-to-person) )
• The behaviors can be replayed with variant inputs

4 Properties Procedural Participatory
Encyclopedic - Spatial
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Conditional, Parameterized, Replay Worlds
Spacewar! (1961)
Payroll !
http//lcs.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/projects/sp
acewar/
4 Properties Procedural Participatory
Encyclopedic - Spatial
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Conditional, Parameterized, Replay Worlds
4 Properties Procedural Participatory
Encyclopedic - Spatial
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Conditional, Parameterized, Replay Worlds
Grand Theft Auto 3
The Sims 2
Civilization
4 Properties Procedural Participatory
Encyclopedic - Spatial
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Computational Media Are Participatory

• We do not just watch or listen, we act have an
  effect
• We contribute, manipulate, copy digital objects
• We make receive customized versions of digital
  objects
• We join virtual communities mediated by digital
  formats

4 Properties Procedural Participatory
Encyclopedic - Spatial
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Computational Media Are Participatory

• Wikipedia distributed authorship of information
  resource
• MMORPG Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing
  Games
• Music and videos distributed online
• Altering of photographs, other digital objects
• Movement from few news authorities to blogosphere
• Growth of videogames, passing movies in sales
  revenues
• Growth of interactive TV
• Success of ebay and Craigs list

4 Properties Procedural Participatory
Encyclopedic - Spatial
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Interactive procedural participatory

• The interactor asks
• what does it do?
• what is my role?
• what will happen if I.?
• When behavior of computer matches actions of
  interactor in a coherent way, we create the
  experience of agency

4 Properties Procedural Participatory
Encyclopedic - Spatial
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Computational Media Are Encyclopedic

• Encyclopedic in 3 ways
• Amount of memory
• Kinds of media
• Universal Machine Representational Power

4 Properties Procedural Participatory
Encyclopedic - Spatial
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CM as Encyclopedic Capacity
1 book 100,000 words 1MB 1 cd-rom 650
MB650books 1 gigabyte 1000 books 100 GB
100,000 books Internet 8 books Google indexing
5 research libraries 15,000,0000 bks
4 Properties Procedural Participatory
Encyclopedic - Spatial
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CM as Encyclopedic Convergence of Older Media
Forms
Hot Norman
Storycorps
Scott McCloud
Reliving Last Night
4 Properties Procedural Participatory
Encyclopedic - Spatial
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CM as Encyclopedic Binary Code Universal
Machine
4 Properties Procedural Participatory
Encyclopedic - Spatial
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Patterns of Representation

• Whenever I design a chip the first thing I want
  to do is look at it under a microscope -- not
  because I think I can learn something new by
  looking at it but because I am always fascinated
  by how a pattern can create reality.
• Danny Hillis The Pattern in the Stone

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Spatial Design

• Navigable space
• Where am I within the space?
• What is the extent of the space?
• What are the proximities within the space?
• What are the boundaries? How do I enter exit?
• How do I get from place to place?

4 Properties Procedural Participatory
Encyclopedic - Spatial
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Zork

• downThe trap door crashes shut, and you hear
  someone barring it.
• CellarYou are in a dark and damp cellar with a
  narrow passageway leading north, and a crawlway
  to the south. On the west is the bottom of a
  steep metal ramp which is unclimbable.Your sword
  is glowing with a faint blue glow.
• north
• The Troll RoomThis is a small room with
  passages to the east and south and a forbidding
  hole leading west. Bloodstains and deep scratches
  (perhaps made by an axe) mar the walls.
• A nasty-looking troll, brandishing a bloody axe,
  blocks all passages out of the room.
• Your sword has begun to glow very brightly.

4 Properties Procedural Participatory
Encyclopedic - Spatial
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What is Immersion?

• Spatial property boundaries, exploration, being
  there
• Encyclopedic property inexhaustible, detailed,
  consistent

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Summary of Key Concepts

• 4 Properties/affordances of Computational Media
• Procedural
• Participatory
• Encyclopedic
• Spatial
• Interactivity comes from maximizing procedural
  participatory properties
• Immersion comes from maximizing the spatial and
  encyclopedic properties