Download The Computer as an Expensive Medium - Lecture Slides | LCC 6310 and more Study notes Communication in PDF only on Docsity! 1 LCC 6310 The Computer as an Expressive Medium Lecture 19 Overview Programming concepts Process intensity Look at projects 3 Process Intensity Process intensity - term coined by Chris Crawford Refers to the "crunch per bit" ratio How much processing does the computer do on the data? Instantial assets - data displayed by computer Sound files Bitmaps Text Animations … Instantial assets: a temptation When first learning to program, instantial assets can provide immediate reward Using them might feel more "safe" But instantial assets Don't make use of the unique properties of computational media Limit possibilities for interaction Create an authorial bottleneck Are computationally "opaque" 2 The essence of the medium The essence of the computer as a representational medium is not… Intervention in the production or display of 3 dimensional forms or visual imagery (tools) Interaction with a participant/observer (interactivity) Control of electro-mechanical devices (installation) Mediation of signals from distant locations (communication) The essence of the computer as a medium is… Computation, processes of mechanical manipulation to which observers can ascribe meaning Computation = code + rhetoric Overuse of instantial assets blocks flow between code and rhetoric Uninterpreted computation Physical symbol system Complex causal flows Code m achi ne R he torical m achine Rhetorical strategies Interpretation Representation Instantial assets limit interaction More degrees of interactive freedom require more complexity of response As the interactor can do more, the program needs to do more Responses generated from instantial assets… Limit response to combinations of assets Require more assets as the range of response grows Can be an authorial bottleneck Instantial design tends to limit interaction or collapse response Computational opacity The meaning of instantial assets are opaque to code Example: code that triggers video clips can't reason about or manipulate the meaning of the clips This opacity limits the code's ability to resequence these assets in meaningful and interesting ways Assets must be designed for sequencibility or… Assets must be "opened-up" to the code
