INFO PAGE

Interactive Media Overview

Background

Formerly Interactive Multimedia (IMM) but Multi is redundant as media is plural. Officially Interactive Media Management (IMM) - as of 2013. The official name is under protest - see petition and petition results: http://danzen.com/petition/imm/ and http://danzen.com/petition/imm/results.php

Inter - between
Active - engaging / playing / making
Media - environment
Digital - computer

IM - we create environments in which people can engage/play/make with a computer or with each other through a computer.

Media and Mediums

Media (plural) Medium (singular) - sits between - hot, cold, medium. A spiritual medium sits between the living and the dead. Paint and clay sit between the creator and creation. A node in a hierarchy is a medium with context above and content below. People make content in context.

IM - we make context so that people can make content.

This empowers the people.

Web Design makes content - try and remember and honour the difference.

It turns out, that having made the context, we can make content with it. For instance, if I make an op art tool, I can then make op art with the tool.

MOTTO

The goal of IM is not to make content for people to consume. We are less about letting people read, look, watch and listen. More about letting people write, draw, make, do, operate, play and organize.

IM - making digital environments in which to create, communicate and play.

Beware that the Marketing industry wants to show their authoritative message. They often forget the power of engaging user generated experiences.

PROGRAMMING

To create an environment, there must be boundaries.

A game needs rules, a community a code, an app its instructions, etc. Boundaries, rules, codes, limits, etc. are not evil. These help shape order out of chaos - organization will lead to the big hug! Even art would be suspect without form. This form is set up on the computer with code.

IM - we program to make code that applies the rules of the environment.

CONCLUSION

Each medium (Print, Radio, TV, the Web) has factors that make material work well.
It is always most “elegant” to make use of these factors. Taking advantage of unique factors in new media advances our culture. Print, Radio and TV are authoritative. The Internet can be different. We have a chance to let users create content and communicate with one another. This combined with computer programming are some of the factors that we should take advantage of when creating.

PS. Distribution is also an advantage of the Web – but in this saturated environment… it has become much harder to complete that distribution and reach people’s attention.