intro to computational media w eek 2: properties of the medium media codes and conventions week 2...

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

Media Codes and Conventions

Week 2LCC 2700: Intro to Computational MediaSpring 2005Janet H. Murray


Last week ….

The computer is a medium. Creates the Don Quixote/Ciotat Train/Eliza illusiona material substance that contains ideas throughinscription e.g. bitstransmission 0011 binary codedigital media formats (video codec) (gif, jpg)representation asci, letters, words, texts, etc.temporal and spatial formats and genres


Computation as a Medium

• Not merely a tool or technology or conduit• Inheritor, expander of media traditions• Medium: inscription, transmission,

representation• Media conventions bring coherence• Convergence disrupts coherence• How to invent a medium

– Import legacy conventions to new format to discover its unique affordances;

– Discover , refine, employ new conventions that exploit and organize these affordances


Web Page Assignment for last week:

Make a home page for this course. Include your name, course name & number, email link, an image of yourself, and an element that is appropriate to the general idea of “Computational Media” . Include area for links to all of your assignments. Include short biographical statement.

• Observe appropriate format and genre conventions for an academic course-specific student web page.


Class Web Page: Include

• Title (Name of Student) visible at top of page(s)• Menus visible without scrolling at top or left• Photo of student visible at top of page, sized

appropriately• Links to assignments in orderly list • Biography with degree of formality while still

friendly; information appropriate to class• Playful / thematic element characteristic of

digital medium


Class Web Page: Avoid

• Moving flashing pointers [temporal convention] • Moving text scroll [temporal convention]• Overly informal, slangy diction (‘Sup; well allrighty then; Hi

there!) • Characterizing yourself or your work negatively, offering

apologies (“crazy”) using offensive words “retarded”• Thanking people for visiting• Enormous pictures• Underlining without linking• The word “random”• Overly busy backgrounds• Pages that require scrolling (without anchors)

Centered text, especiallymulti-line centered text which is

harder to read than left-justified text


Examples of Web Page Coherence

• Biography in appropriate tone:http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/%7Emurray/courses/lcc2700sp05/locker/dhunt/

assignment1/index.html

• Layout with left navigation, no scrolling

http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/%7Emurray/courses/lcc2700sp05/locker/mhansen/assignment1/index.html(but do not use “links” as label) (navigation disappeared?)

http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/%7Emurray/courses/lcc2700sp05/locker/mchu/assignment1/index.html

http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/%7Emurray/courses/lcc2700sp05/locker/nbowman/assignment1/index.html

http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/%7Emurray/courses/lcc2700sp05/locker/pbonaparte/assignment1/aboutme.html (but do not center text!)


Your web presence

Check out the Grad Students’ web sites for more polished examples:

http://idt.lcc.gatech.edu/people/students.php

Remember your home page for the class is not your all-purpose site. You can link to your academic home page.

We have given you room on the server for a general student home page if you are a CM major. (Make an index.html file for you www directory) Advice: Use it to set up a site that employers can look at, including CV and portfolio


Summary of Week 2:

• Review of Codes and Conventions• Properties of the medium

– Procedural– Participatory– Encyclopedic– Spatial


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

Patterns of Representation


Patterns of Inscription: (Wedges; Electrodes)

700 BC Cuneiform Clay Tablet


Patterns of Transmission (Ideograms; Logic Gates, Bytes)



Patterns of Representation (Words; Instructions)



Code

A system of rules, laws , or regulations (standard)

A system of symbols, letters or words given arbitrary meanings for transmitting messages requiring brevity or secrecy (from dictionary.com)

Codes are arbitrary, socially negotiated: we agree that shaking hands /saying “hello” = greeting


Codes are arbitrary social agreements

Semaphore flags for ships

turning starboard

yes

keep clear of me


Logical Codes (Symbols)

• Traffic signals, telephone numbers, urls• Morse Code, Braille• Computer code• Semaphores• Gang colors• Quantitative and mathematical symbols

Logical codes are unambiguous, based on 1 to 1 correspondences between code systems

They work best for domains with constrained possibilities


Cultural Codes (Signs)

• Alphabet • Language• Laws (as enforced)• Images (except some iconic signs)• Gestures (e.g. obscenities vary by culture)• Dress codes: e.g. jeans vs suits; cowboy boots• Social stereotypes• Rules of Politeness• Ideological categories (religious, political)


Cultural Codes

• Rest on communities of interpretation (e.g. teenagers)

• Interpreted according to context• Have more than 1 possible interpretation • Include embedded logical codes, e.g. words/letters• Overlap and embed one another• Change over time • Differ across communities• Are often unconscious or “naturalized”• Work for the messy world of human experience


First Telegraphs Looked Like This

Flags on Poles, Lanterns at a Distance

turning starboard

yes

keep clear of me


Morse Code (1838)

Telegraph rests on the invention of the electromagnet, activated remotely by electric wire plus Morse Code


Paper output telegraph 1844

Smithsonian Collection: Samuel Morse


Braille (1829)

Based on a grid of 3 rows of 2 dots per letter. Earlier code based on sounds was unsuccessful. Braille is based not on sounds but on alphabet of written language using conventional spelling. 63 characters include shorthand for common words and punctuation.


Morse Code (~1835)

From inscription on paper as dots and dashes to inscription by short/long sound using key

Dot = 1 time unit Dash = 3 units

Letter break = 3 units Word break = 7 units

40-50 words per minute for expert operator

Typewriter key descendent of telegraph key

TELEX used with early networked, time sharing, interpreted code computers a descendent of telegraph

1855 key invented


Emoticons and TLAs ^^^MYOB

Morse code abbreviationsAA (all after)OM (old man = any male operator)YL (young lady = any female operator)

Codes always pushed to greater expressiveness, new conventions


Organizational Formats Bring Coherence

• Labels on clay tablets• Single direction writing• Pages, paragraphs, chapters, indexes, title page• Shots, edits, multi-reel length movies• Genre conventions: news articles, sitcoms,

textbooks…


Organizational Formats Based on Codes

• Labels– Names, addresses, urls– Menu items on web page– Categories of knowledge

• Listing. agglomerating• Segmenting

– Physical segmentation: pages, book length, 1 hour TV show, record album (from vinyl segmentation)

– Semantic segmentation: paragraph, article, song..


Organizational Formats Based on Codes

• Sorting– Like attributes– Hierarchies (a kind of)

• Spatializing– Tables of information – Library Shelves– Web page grid

• Sequencing– Temporally (syllabus)– Causally (narrative)– Symbolically (by

alphabet, student number, etc.)


Digital Organizational Formats

• Standard nomenclatures• Database• Web addresses• Menu for a CD-ROM or DVD• Controlled vocabularies• Metadata attached to data files


Digital Genres / Participatory Codes

• Productivity tool• Web site• Web store• Newspaper• PC Game

• Icons, menu bars• Underlined/colored links • Shopping cart icon• Link to weather at top• Mapping to arrow keys


Media Conventions (codes, formats, genres)

• Sometimes Media-Specific– Telegraph shorthand not suitable for IM– Jump in story unnecessary on web– Theatrical acting vs film acting

• Sometimes Trans-Media– Spoken language, written text in multiple media– News tells who, what, where, when, how, and why– Tragedy, comedy, mystery stories cross media


Telegraph to Computer• Key strokes into letters into code• Networked information devices transmitting

messages

Library to Computer• Storing information in discrete labeled containers• Sorting information• Retrieving information by category and label

Activity of coding forms a tradition


Key Concept:A Medium evolves by expansion/refinement of its technologies, codes, formats, and genresClay TabletPapyrus ScrollManuscript codex (pages)Printed BookFrescoOil PaintingPhotographyCinemaTVComputer

intro to computational media w eek 2: properties of the medium media codes and conventions week 2...

Documents

new conventions

home page

genre conventions

web presencecheck

appropriate format

new format

scrolling http

affordancesweb page