So today we had a chance to work in groups dealing with creating paper prototypes of a “new” addition to Facebook, called video. When we are done creating our prototype, take a look here soon!
Also, if you would like to add your two cents about what should be in our prototype of Facebook NewTeeVee, please feel free to post.
Smiles!
We began class with another aesthetic experience: wishing our professor a happy birthday. You can take a look below at the video I recorded during the celebration process to get a more nuanced look at how graduate classes at IU are actually experienced.
So we engaged in the writing of Bolter and Grusin. These writers help to engage in what a medium is and how we can interact with it. For these writers, a medium is the physical materials and dissemination of content. In our studies, we are in a convergence of where these two aspects of a medium come together. We need to be able to talk eloquently and critically about both, and the experience resulting from this confluence.
To many people, the word medium strikes at the content aspect of a medium. Most think about the ability of a medium to contain content, but the formal studies of media takes an opposite stance. The medium also has another quality: the content and its form cannot be separated from each other. These are integral parts of what a medium is – removing one is impossible without removing the other.
So we all have heard of the famous Marshall McCluin dictum: the medium is the message. There is a slightly weaker stance from our standpoint as a class and from the reading – the medium affects the message. For example, a novel may work better at revealing the interiority of the characters, but it may be lacking in pure visceral power of imagery. A movie, on the other hand, especially in the horror genre, may have great visceral power in its imagery, but may be lacking in showing the interiority of the characters.
An example of this debate can be found within machcinima, with the series of Red Versus Blue. This can be found here. The point of this example is that series of movies like these are inherently about the game and everything surrounding the game, which goes to the argument about affecting the message. What is your opinion?
While discussing this, we also came up with playing mad libs with the word media. One topic we touched on was media literacy – can one be literate in a medium. This is touchy, as it all depends on how we operationalize the word literate. If we restrict to just technical knowledge, then the answer is quite simple. Then we looked at many different uses of the word medium for our technical vocabulary. First, there’s immediacy, which is the cognitive effect of looking through the medium and seeing what is there. Then there is hypermediacy, where the medium calls attention to itself. There are other terms mentioned in the link below which also utilize the word medium in a mad lib type of manner.
Looking deeper into these concepts, and we also found that there is never a message without a medium. The message needs a medium in order to become a message, which is perceived by our human cognition. Because of this, it is inherently subjective, but we may also try to use our own objective means to try to interpret it, but even so, this process is subjective. Media are also always changing, but each, and its messages are situated in time or place. For example, it is really hard to define what a novel is, without tying the definition to a time period. With this in mind, it is truly hard to have something as universal. In addition, media also have the aspect that they cannibalize other media; there can’t be new media without old media being consumed or utilized in the process.
Media also have an intertexuality to them you can look at how one works, and one can see the other histories leading to that medium. Normally this is reserved for physical media like books, but this also applies to media as well. These allow us as designers to innovate – we can then decompose the super-complex stuff to much more handleable stuff that we can learn about and find meaning in each of the parts. We also need to remember that when we are making a new artifact (or medium for that matter), we are changing the cultural practices centered around whatever we create.
Remediation is representing one media from another (synopsis from the link below). There are four aspects of this trait:
*social – this aspect examines the continuation and transformation of social practices as we move from medium to another (e.g. cinema)
*technical – this aspect looks at the continuation and transformation of technology (e.g. cameras)
*material – this aspect looks at the continuation and transformation of the material level of something (e.g. madden, genre)
*economic – this aspect looks at the continuation and transformation of economic practices related to something (e.g. monetization of music)
As we are designing, we need to keep in mind these aspects of remediation, and we cannot change one of these aspects without affecting how the other aspects work. We also need to keep in mind the debate as to whether or not the new medium we create is superior to the older ones out there. Is it? Lastly, sometimes when a new medium is created, it ends up taking over some of our beliefs – for example a movie may help us to say someone’s name or impress upon us what the characters look like (called “multicultural gandalfism”, in class). Then we will refer to the new medium, instead of focusing on the one we originally dealt with.
We get to bring this paper, the interface criticism paper, and our Technology as Experience book with us to class next time, as we get to perform an opportunity that will allow us to become engaged in this material and terminology.
For those struggling or wanting to know more about the many different words we have been using which contain the word ‘media’ in them, you can look here, and this site will help to explain the nuances between them all.
Here’s some timeless moments you may have missed while being here at the Informatics department (or viewing from the web)
There is a handy HCI crocodile hanging out in the West Building – can you spot him (assuming gender) now?
It still is snowing – Indiana weather sure is weird.
So there has been some funny stuff I have been watching which I have not put up yet on this here blog, so here’s a second I have to do this:
I hope people start adopting this around the internets and here at Indiana. Just watch and be amazed.
Props to Augusto (the master of triangulation) for finding this awesome video about Joachim Phoenix and his interview on Letterman a while back. Quite awesome, and quite commentable.
Have some fun with these. Please let me know what you think.
There’s a lot going on in the world right now, especially in my little section of it. I’ve got my Master’s program in Human-Computer Interaction Design, a potential submission to Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, a lot of awesome people to interact with, and also I just recently gotten an internship as part of the Web Team at Game Zombie, an internet site which helps to garner interest in gaming by showcasing the latest and greatest videos and material from the gaming world. They are actually pretty well known, and I’m excited to get to work with them. Here’s their latest accomplishment, which is about their ongoing series called Button Mashers. Looks quite cool – you should probably check it out.
Also, here’s a sample of the web videos they create, with this one featuring the game Dead Space:
As many know, I love to play video games, and hopefully I’ll end up helping to make them in the future, but a demo came out recently of one of my favorite series, Resident Evil. I just got to play the new demo, and I have some things to say from both the player’s standpoint and the interaction designer’s standpoint. Before I begin, here’s a snapshot of the gameplay, taken from my iPhone: 
From a player’s standpoint, the demo was pretty good. Aside from new graphics, I feel it is still the same as RE4. The only difference is that there is another player who can help you, but you’re plopped into the middle of two infested areas with infinite zombies, with no upgraded weapons. It was both fun and frustrating, as the default button configuration was not anything like the other RE games. Many of the people who ended up playing ended up either calling for the other player, or not knowing how to reload or switch to other guns (which all of these are all important and necessary things for the player to do!). It also felt exactly like RE4, with the exact voices and feel as RE4, which was OK, but there’s some promise for improvement. I felt utterly frustrated after playing this game, as there was so much left hidden that I could not get to or understand, especially since I was playing splitscreen. This will not make for non-online gaming in this game difficult.
There’s a lot about this demo which made me like and dislike the demo from this standpoint. I did like some of the ways which the UI helps to show a lot of information. Things like life, and what the other player has are really important to show at all times. I also did like how the interface changed when the other player was in trouble, but the introductions of annoying sounds (but the good use of voice overs) made it almost impossible to not know when the other player is in need of your help. The button combination was pretty poor, as it didn’t allow me to be able to get into the game immediately. I had to constantly keep asking about buttons and how to move my fingers, rather than having fun. The traditional RE style of play would have suited much better, and not having to use two sticks to move would be much better. Learn from the GameCube and the PS2 control scheme! Also, there were quick menus and such unavailable without knowing how to get to them. Some tips on that would have been really helpful. The same cues for when an interactable are still around (glowing light), but they force you to use the X button (which is on the right, not where one’s thumb actually rests), instead of the A button. It just doesn’t gel. Overall, there was a good use of the cues which worked from RE4, but these cues were hampered by the introduction of more information and the reduced screen size (not to mention the poor control scheme). Hopefully, this will be made better for the final release.
I also had the experience of doing some things for the first time in my life. I got to go to a Slow Food potluck last weekend, and there was some great food there (couscous – so nice they named it twice!). Even though I was pretty satisfied, I ended up going grocery shopping and then having another awesome experience at a White Castle. I just loved the people there, along with how the food is presented, and how it fits in one’s hand. Combine the good taste of the food, and it’s one great experience to remember. A picture of the packaging is below to show you what I mean.
