EA Research

Principles Of Multimedia

11/11/01

In researching Demystifying Multimedia, a book co-authored for Apple Computer in 1993, I interviewed many experienced multimedia developers. When asked what kind of book they would like to see,  they said they wanted a book about the why, not so much about the how. But Apple Computer wanted the how book to sell its products, and so the writing team delivered a book for those unacquainted with the ways of multimedia. So the first "why" draft, written for the audience of technicians and artists was rejected and it  awaits the light of day. Some of my original draft ideas became the base for a set of courses delivered at San Francisco State University - Understanding Media - The McLuhan Course

Surely an understanding of media principles will endure beyond a mere explanation of the current technology. The Apple book was written on their then favorite technology - Laserdisc, with notes on theemerging CD-ROM. The Internet was about to break. Although the 1993 audience did find out about some basic techniques of the successful multimedia companies of the time, they walked away with little that could help serve them with future media. My intent was to provide this vision.

A principles of digital media or at least a media guide is essential for those who commit new technology.

Today there is a large audience who could benefit from an understanding the principles of media. Digital artists, database designers, interface engineers, interactive project managers, businessmen deploying web sites use interactive digital media networks that can reach people in many different ways. A designer from a principled viewpoint asks, "given that computers can deliver text, graphics, sound, voice, video, animation to convey a message - which ones do you use and why?" To look at this same question architecturally - if your  information design is built from all media types, which materials are most efficient in delivery and effect? Apple Computer passed on the value of this approach, but I am convinced these are essential principles worth mastering.

One early illumination of media principle and theory is found in the helpful writings of Marshall McLuhan. His studies and probes are the proper beginning for a book on media principles  that will be required to answer one of the most important research questions of our time. We will operate future  networked computer-based devices on a digital carrier medium that can be transcoded to multiple media. You may want to refract the carrier - to see it as text, view it as pictures, have it spoken to you, hear it as music, see it as a movie. In the era of transcoded media,  how do we choose one over the other, in what combination, and how do we encode the digital carrier? Having an essential artistic understanding of the principles of media is a quest worthy for any student who will build tomorrow's society.