The DDC is taking the lead in creating a new media working group at the university that will include faculty from dance, theater, art, computer science, and architecture. New media is field of study that has developed around cultural practices with the computer playing a central role as the medium for production, storage, and distribution. New media studies reflect on the social and ideological impact of the computer.

The idea of “new media” has ample historical precedent. The invention of movable type in the 14th century and the advent of photography in the 19th century are both examples of technologies that have altered the media and character of art and culture in the broadest sense.

“This Will Kill That….………the book of stone, so solid and so durable, was about to make way for the book of paper, more solid and still more durable. In this connection the archdeacon’s vague formula had a second sense. It meant, ‘Printing will kill architecture.’” The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo

The current conceptualization of New Media has been catalyzed by the widespread use of the computer in all fields. New Media has become a term used to describe the nascent field of study that has developed around cultural practices with the computer playing a central role as the medium for creation, production, storage and distribution.

Members of the groups include:
Sybil Huskey, Dance
James Vesce, Theater
Tiffany Barnes, CoIT
Bill Ribarsky, Vis Center
Chris Beorkrem, Architecture
Mark Morris, Architecture
Matt Parker, Architecture
Malena Bergman, Art
Jeff Murphy, Art
Heather Freeman, Art
Mike Wirth, Art
Heather Freeman, Art
G. Michael Youngblood, CS
Heather Richter, CS
Nick Ault, Architecture
Anne Harley, Music
Celine Latullpe, CS

New Media studies reflect on the social and ideological impact of the personal computer, computer networks, digital mobile devices, ubiquitous computing and virtual reality. The study includes researchers and propagators of new forms of artistic such as interactive installations, net art, software art, new interfaces for musical interface design and the concepts of interactivity and multimedia.

Interest in the use of computers is not new to any of the disciplines on campus, but as the uses of computing and visualization have progressed, it has led to new forms of expression that begin to cross between disciplines. Computer scientists are designing computer games and human/computer interfaces; artists are making web based and digital art; dance and theatre are using motion capture and real time compositing in productions; architects are designing interactive architecture and tangible user interfaces; and philosophers are discussing ideas of aesthetic computing. The boundaries between disciplines are blurring in interesting and fruitful ways.

The meetings have been organized around presentations of existing classroom instruction and research that use the computer in new and innovative ways. The relevant sub-specialties include ubiquitous computing, game design, human/computer interface, electronic media, stage and set design, computer based motion capture and interactive architecture. We have held colooquia on handheld computing, interactive opera, human computer interface, digital uses is art, and gaming.