ALMOITE, RAMIL C. 19, 2015 BSIS II – WINDOWS (A)
NOVEMBER ISEL 101
Histo! o" M#$ti%&'i A tradit tradition ional al way way of thinki thinking ng throug through h somet somethin hing g that that is new is to reco recover ver its historie histories. s. The histories histories of multimedi multimedia a are still being being negotiate negotiated d and include the histories of dierent media, the history of computing, and the history of the critical theories applied to multimedia. One history of multimedia is the history of the pers person onal al comp comput uter er as it evol evolve ved d from from an inst instit itut utio iona nall mach machin ine e desi design gned ed for for numerical processing processing to a multimedia personal computer that most of us can aord. The modern computer as it emerged after World War II is a generalpurpose generalpurpose mach machin ine e that that can can be adap adapte ted d to new new purp purpos oses es thro throug ugh h prog progra ramm mmin ing g and and peripherals. The history of the computer since the !"IA# $%&'() can be seen as the working out of this idea in dierent ways, including the techni*ues for managing dierent media. While the +rst computers were designed solely to do scienti+c and appl applie ied d nume numeri rica call calc calcul ulat atio ions ns,, they they wer were even eventu tual ally ly ete etend nded ed to hand handle le alphanum alphanumeric eric strings strings $tet), $tet), raster raster and vector vector graphics graphics,, audio, audio, moving moving picture pictures s $video and animation), and +nally, threedimensional ob-ects and space. Todays personal computer can handle all these media with the appropriate peripherals, making multimedia development and consumption available to the home user.
N#%&s *' t&+t If the +rst computers were designed for number crunching and data processing for military, scienti+c, and then business applications, they soon became adapted to tet editing or the manipulation of alphanumeric strings. The +rst commercial word processor was the I/0 0T12T $magnetic tape 1 2electric typewriter), which was marketed by I/0 as a 3word processor3 and released in %&('. It stored tet on a tape for editing and reprinting through a 2electric typewriter. A word processor, as opposed to a tet editor, was meant for producing rhetorical documents while tet editors were for programming and interacting with the system. /y the late %&45s, personal computers had primitive word processing programs that allowed one to enter, edit, and print documents. 0icro6ro Internationals Word2tar $%&4&) was one of the +rst +rst commer commercia cially lly succes successf sful ul word word proce process ssing ing progr programs ams for a perso personal nal comp comput uter er,, epa epand ndin ing g the the medi media a that that coul could d be hand handle led d by a home home user user from from numbers to tet.
I%&s The net step was access to graphics on a personal computer, a development that came with the release of the Apple 0acintosh in %&7'. The 0acintosh $0ac), which made made innova innovatio tions ns from from the 8ero ero 6alo Alto Alto 9esear esearch ch #enter #enter access accessibl ible e on a commercially successful personal computer, was designed from the start to handle graph graphics ics.. It came came bundle bundled d with with a 3paint 3paint33 progr program, am, 0ac6 0ac6aint, aint, and a mouse mouse for painting and interacting with the graphical user interface $:;I). While it was not the +rst computer with graphical capabilities, it was the +rst widely available computer with with stand standar ard d graphi graphical cal capab capabili ilitie ties s built builtin in so that that anyone anyone could could paint paint simpl simple e images, edit them, print them or integrate them into other documents like word
processing documents created with 0acWrite, a W<2IWI: $whatyouseeiswhat youget) word processor also bundled with the early 0acs.
D&s-to #$is/i* In %&7(, the capabilities of the 0acintosh were etended with the release of the 0ac 6lus, Aldus 6age0aker and the 6ost2cript capable Apple =aserWriter. The combination of these three technologies made 3desktop publishing3 accessible on the personal computer where before it had been limited to very epensive speciali>ed systems. While 0ac6aint was a playful tool that could not compete with commercial graphics systems, a designer out+tted with 6age0aker and a =aserWriter could compete with professional designers working on dedicated typesetting systems for lowend, monochrome publishing -obs like manuals and newsletters. It was not long before a colorcapable 0acintosh was released $the 0ac II), which, when combined with imageediting software like Adobe 6hoto2hop, helped the 0ac replace dedicated systems as the industry standard for graphic design and publishing. "ow, -ust about any publication, from newspapers to glossy annual reports, is created, edited, and proofed on personal computer systems. The only components still beyond the budget of the home user are the highresolution digital cameras, scanners, and printers necessary to produce top*uality publications. /ut even these components are slowly moving into the reach of everyday computer users. ?esktop publishing is the precursor to multimedia, even though desktop publishing aims at rhetorical artifacts that are not viewed on a computer. #omputeraided graphic design and desktop publishing are arts that use computers instead of traditional technologies to produce rhetorical artifacts that combine media, such as tet and images. The challenge of combining two media, each with dierent creative and interpretative traditions, predates desktop publishing @ designers before the computer struggled to design the word and image. What was new, however, was that the personal computer user now had the opportunity to eperiment with the design and placement of content in twodimensional space. The initial result was a proliferation of horrid, overdesigned newsletters and posters that fre*uently ehibited unrestrained use of fonts and visual styles.
A#t/oi* &*io*%&*ts urther, the desktop publishing tools were themselves multimedia environments that provided for the direct manipulation of images and tet. ?esktop publishing was a precursor to multimediaB desktop publishers typically spent most of their time viewing the forprint documents they manipulated on the interactive screen, not on paper. :raphic designers comfortable with design for print $but on a screen) were ready when the +rst authoring tools became available for the design of screen based media. They knew how to work with images and tet in the twodimensional screen space and were competent with the graphics tools needed to lay out and create computer graphics. When Apple released Cyper#ard in %&74, the graphics community was positioned to take advantage of their new skills in screenbased design. Cyper#ard, developed by the creator of 0ac6aint $Andy Cert>+eld), was an immediate success, especially since it came free with every 0acintosh and allowed multimedia authors to distribute Cyper#ard stacks without licensing costs to other 0acintosh users. :iven the high penetration of 0acs in schools, it is not surprising that within a year of the release of Cyper#ard there were thousands of simple educational multimedia works that combined tet, images, simple animations, and simple interactivity.
Authoring environments like Cyper#ard are important to the growth of multimedia as they were easier to learn than the programming languages needed previously to create multimedia, and they were designed speci+cally for the combination of media into interactive works. Cyper#ard, as its name suggests, was inspired by hypertet theory. The metaphor of Cyper#ard was that authors created a stack of cards $nodes of information), which could have tet, graphics, and buttons on them. The buttons were the hypertet links to other cards. Cyper#ard had a scripting language with which one could create more comple behaviors or add etensions to control other media devices like audio #?s and videodisk players. One of the most popular computer games of its time, 0yst $%&&D), was +rst developed on Cyper#ard. The card stack metaphor was *uickly imitated by Asymetri Tool/ook, one of the more popular multimedia authoring environments for the I/0 6#. Tool/ooks metaphor was a book of pages with tet, graphics, and buttons and it added color capability. Today, the most popular authoring environments other than CT0= editors such as ?reamweaver and :o=ive are tools like 0acromedia ?irector and 0acromedia lash. /oth ?irector and lash use a cell and timeline metaphor that evolved out of animation environments. lash is used etensively to add animations and interactive components to websites while ?irector is used for more comple pro-ects that are typically delivered on a #?9O0. The lash +le format $2W) has been published so that other tools can manipulate 2W.
So#*' The 0acintosh also incorporated sound manipulation as a standard feature. The +rst 0acs released in the mid%&75s had builtin sound capabilities beyond a speaker for beeps. The %E7F 0ac had 7bit mono sound output capability. /y %&&5, Apple was bundling microphones with standard 0acs. Cyper#ard could handle audio, though it could not edit it. The standard 0acintosh thus had simple audio capabilities suitable for interactive multimedia. With the addition of 0usical Instrument ?igital Interface $0I?I) controllers and software, 0acintoshes became popular in the electronic music community along with the now discontinued Atari 2T $%&7G), which came with a built in 0I?I port. One of the +rst multimedia works to make etensive use of audio was 9obert Winters interactive /eethovens "inth 2ymphony. This %&7& work came with Cyper#ard stacks on Hoppy disk, which could control a commercial audio #? of /eethovens "inth 2ymphony. The user could navigate the audio and read critical notes that were synchroni>ed to the symphony.
Diit$ i'&o The latest media threshold to be overcome in aordable personal computers is digital video. The challenge of multimedia is to combine not -ust asynchronous media like tet and images, neither of which need to be played over time, but also timedependent media like audio, animation, and video. ideo puts the greatest stress on computer systems because of the demands of accessing, processing, and outputting the E&.&4 framespersecond typical of television*uality video. Only recently, with the introduction of computers with ire Wire or I!!!%D&' ports, has it
become easy to shoot video, download it to the personal computer for editing, and transfer it back to tape, #?, or ??, or even to stream it over the Internet. :iven the challenge of integrating video, there have been some interesting hybrid solutions. One of the +rst multimedia works, the Aspen 0ovie 0ap $%&47), by Andrew =ippman $and others) from what is now called the 0IT 0edia =ab, combined photographs on a videodisk with computer control so that the user could wander through Aspen, going up and down streets in dierent seasons. With the release of digital video standards like 06!: $06!:% in %&7&, 06!:E in %&&%) and Apple JuickTime $%&&%), it became possible to manage video entirely in digital form. An early published work that took advantage of JuickTime was the oyager #?9O0 of the /eatles A Card ?ays "ight $%&&D). This was built around a digital video version of the innovative /eatles music movie. It is now common for multimedia works to include lowresolution digital video elements.
Vit#$ s& *' &!o*' #urrent multimedia systems present the user with a twodimensional graphical user interface. While such systems can manipulate threedimensional information $D?), they do not typically have the D? input and output devices associated with virtual reality $9) systems. Is 9 the net step in the evolution of the multimedia computer and user interfaceK In the %&&5s it seemed that cyberspace, as described by William :ibson in "euromancer $%&7'), was the net frontier for multimedia computing. :ibsons vision was implemented in systems that combine head tracking systems, data gloves, and D? goggles to provide an immersive eperience of a virtual space. The metaphor for computing would no longer be the desktop, but would be virtual spaces +lled with avatars representing people and D? ob-ects. The relationship between user and computer would go from one of direct manipulation of iconographic representations to immersion in a simulated world. 2pace and structure were the +nal frontier of multimedia. While this pro-ected evolution of the multimedia interface is still the sub-ect of academic research and development, it has been miniaturi>ation and the Internet that have driven the industry instead. The desktop multimedia systems of the %&&5s are now being repackaged as portable devices that can play multiple media. The keyboard and the mouse are being replaced by input devices like pen interfaces on personal digital assistants $6?As). 9ather than immersing ourselves in virtual caves, we are bringing multimedia computing out of the oLce or lab and weaving it in our surroundings. The challenge to multimedia design is how to scale interfaces appropriately for handheld devices like 06D players and mobile phones.
T/&oi&s *' /istoi&s o" %#$ti%&'i The study of multimedia as a form of epression has yet to develop a theoretical tradition of its own. Instead, critical theories from eisting disciplines are being applied with increasing ingenuity from +lm studies to literary theory. The very issue of which eisting theoretical traditions can be usefully applied to multimedia is a source of debate and discussion. This essay has taken a philosophical1historical approach, asking *uestions about how to think through multimedia. Theorists like /renda =aurel $#omputers as Theatre, %&&%) look at multimedia as dramatic
interactions with users. :eorge =andow, in CypertetM The #onvergence of #ontemporary #ritical Theory and Technology $%&&E), has applied literary theory to computing. =ev 0anovich, in The =anguage of "ew 0edia $E55%), looks at the historical, social, and cultural continuity of +lm and new media. In Camlet on the ColodeckM The future of "arrative in #yberspace $%&&4), Nanet C. 0urray considers the new aesthetic possibilities of multimedia within the contet of narrative tradition. The intersection of technology, communication, and culture has also been a topic of wide interest. 0arshall 0c=uhan, in ;nderstanding 0edia $%&('), populari>ed an approach to thinking about the eects of technology and media on content. Ce and others, like Walter Ong $Orality and =iteracy, %&7E), draw our attention to the profound eects that changes in communications technology can have on what is communicated and how we think through communication. InHuential industry maga>ines like Wired take it as a given that we are going through a communications revolution as signi+cant as the development of writing or print. There is no shortage of enthusiastic evangelists, like :eorge :ilder $=ife After Television, %&&E) and critics like "eil 6ostman $Technopoly, %&&D). There are also inHuential popular works on personal computing and media technology @ works that have introduced ideas from the research community into popular culture, like those of 2tewart /rand $The 0edia =ab, %&74), Coward 9heingold $Tools for Thought, %&7G, and irtual #ommunities, %&&'), and "icholas "egroponte $/eing ?igital, %&&G).
