Why history?
Marshall McLuhan once said, “We drive into the future using only our rear view mirror.” This statement suggests that the past provides our only view of the future. And while it may appear to be of questionable value for navigation, it may also be the best thing that we’ve got. McLuhan also observed that the new media subsume the old…vaudeville and stage plays were turned into radio dramas, books into movies, and radio and movies into television programs. So it shouldn't be surprising that the future of interactive media will look a lot like the traditional media to which we’ve grown so accustomed.
From the early days of mass media people have envisioned technological advances that would make the exchange of ideas and entertainment more closely resemble what happens when two people get together to tell a story or share some news. The living, breathing, interactive exchange of ideas that happens naturally in real life changes dramatically in the process of being scripted, edited, formulated, encoded, transmitted, received, decoded, displayed and experienced (I’m sure that I missed a few steps in there).
However, whenever I think about the history of interactive media I'm confronted with the cognitive dissonance that arises from the intersection of reality and fantasy. The history of virtual reality (VR) is a prime example. From Ray Bradbury’s The Veldt to Star Trek’s Holodeck, to Gibson’s The Matrix, future thinking artists have envisioned new ways of delivering mediated experiences.
If you’re more interested in the delivery of factual information, consider the futuristic notions of Vannevar Bush and Theodore Nelson…both visionaries who dreamt of making information more readily accessible to the masses. Today’s world-wide web owes much to those who dared to dream about things that were technological impossibilities at the time.
It may seem like a detour to spend time talking about the history of interactive media…but mixed with a healthy dose of vision and fantasy it may turn out to be the most direct route to the future.
From the early days of mass media people have envisioned technological advances that would make the exchange of ideas and entertainment more closely resemble what happens when two people get together to tell a story or share some news. The living, breathing, interactive exchange of ideas that happens naturally in real life changes dramatically in the process of being scripted, edited, formulated, encoded, transmitted, received, decoded, displayed and experienced (I’m sure that I missed a few steps in there).
However, whenever I think about the history of interactive media I'm confronted with the cognitive dissonance that arises from the intersection of reality and fantasy. The history of virtual reality (VR) is a prime example. From Ray Bradbury’s The Veldt to Star Trek’s Holodeck, to Gibson’s The Matrix, future thinking artists have envisioned new ways of delivering mediated experiences.
If you’re more interested in the delivery of factual information, consider the futuristic notions of Vannevar Bush and Theodore Nelson…both visionaries who dreamt of making information more readily accessible to the masses. Today’s world-wide web owes much to those who dared to dream about things that were technological impossibilities at the time.
It may seem like a detour to spend time talking about the history of interactive media…but mixed with a healthy dose of vision and fantasy it may turn out to be the most direct route to the future.
posted by pueblosam at
8/27/2004 09:39:00 AM
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