Faculty Seminar on Interactive Media: Theory and Technologies of Representation
Proposal to Humanities Center for 1996-97

The idea for this seminar flows directly from an informally organized
discussion group that has been meeting every week since the Spring
Quarter 1995.  The Interactive Media Group (IMG) was formed by a group
of faculty, students, and professionals interested in theoretical and
practical aspects of interactive media.  The group was inspired by
some members' recent experiences in tackling these issues: Larry
Friedlander and Barbara Hayes-Roth's course on Interactive Narrative
and Artificial Intelligence; Tim Lenoir's courses on "BodyWorks" and
"Virtuality"; and Terry Winograd and Marc Davis' course on
Phenomenology, Cognition and Computers; and Decker Walker's reading
group on interactive media.

We have been engaged in a preliminary study of issues relevant to
interactive media, hoping to find our way toward a constructive theory of
how people compose and inhabit interactive media. We are now readdy to
expand the focus of our discussions with more structured topics and with
formats which include guest speakers, panels, debate topics, and special
demonstrations. As an experiment, we have been recording the groups
discussions, comments, and readings on the World Wide Web. We would like to
explore further this use of the Web by creating a dynamically updated
journal which will reflect our ongoing deliberations but which will also
invite participation from both within and without the university.

FOCUS

Our approaches draw from a wide variety of fields: linguistics, artificial
intelligence, literary theory, cognitive science, mathematics, performance
art, music, and design. We plan to explore  a variety of theoretical topics
that have important but not always obvious connections to the formation of
new kinds of cyberspaces and narrative structures. In particular, we are
interested in

*  developing models of media representation, such as  algebraic video and
structured texts, which offer alternatives to traditional time-based or
graph structures;

* articulating the dramatic and narrative theories embodied in emerging
interface environments;

* investigating the symbolic architecture  of cyberspaces and the influence
of architecture and urban design on systems and interfaces;

* tracing the connection of distributed models of cognition and other
systems with current socio-political and communication theories.

What seems most interesting to us is the way certain fields are yielding
unexpected and fruitful clues for practical developments in technology. So,
for example, theater may provide models for user-interface design, topology
and geometry for media structures, and urban architecture for cyberspace
design.

The seminar will have two aspects: (1) regular weekly sessions in which we
will present and discuss prepared topics, and (2) a cybernetic space in the
form of a shared website which will hold references and media contributed
by local and remote participants.

In a typical session, a speaker will discuss a theoretical issue and
situate it with respect to some design problems.  We might have a series of
prepared responses to the presentation, as well as some discussion of the
implications of the theoretical approach for issues in design and technology.
The discussion will be presented on the Web and further responses from the
community will be invited. The website will also contain a bibliography and
selections from the readings.

We anticipate that our interdisciplinary approach will draw participants
from diverse domains, and yield reconceptualizations of media and action
that will be useful in practical situations.

The seminar's World Wide Web location is
http://www-leland/~xinwei/pub/img/img.html. This site may be browsed 
by anyone interested in our seminar. It currently contains,

(1) an Agenda of topics and speakers
(2) a Discussion trail -- transcripts of seminar discussion
(3) a Bibliography -- a list of "readings" with WWW links to some full media
(4) Sites -- WWW links to affiliate seminars and installations in other institutions

TOPICS AND SPEAKERS IN 1995-96

This year the IMG seminar has begun a survey of work in several fields.
The set of past, current and proposed topics is described in the WWW page
http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~xinwei/pub/img/topics.html
but here is a summary of topics and recent speakers.

We began by exploring participant interests in narrative, digital media
representation, pictorial representation, theater, digital video, and documentary.

John Keeling discussed hypertext and narrative structures.   Diane Middlebrook
presented a case study of a multimedia biography of Tipton.

Sha Xin Wei gave an introduction to representations of digital media.    

Barbara Tversky presented a broad survey of research on pictorial
representations and diagrammatic communication.  Bob Horn previewed his book
on Visual Language (image+ text + shape).

Larry Friedlander presented some interactive theater projects with the MIT
Media Lab.   Invited speaker Glorianna Davenport from the Media Lab spoke
about novel ways to make evolving interactive documentary video.   Charles
Kerns summarized five years of research at the Apple Media Lab on digital
video as social forms.   Most recently, invited speaker Daniel Potter introduced
us to a study of the essay film and mnemonics in the presence of electronic
networked media.

Please see the World Wide Web site's Bibliography page for a partial list of
references cited in our discussions. 
(http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~xinwei/pub/img/readings.html)

FUTURE PLANS

For the future, we would like to begin work on two fronts:  (1) a multi-faceted
critique of interactive media and design; (2) a joint construction of a multimedia
artifact, perhaps for a network audience.

We will start the first project this spring term (1996) by weaving together
the several threads of analysis running through the year.  To support this work,
we will do a close study of some references from our Bibliography.  The form
may be some appropriately multi-vocal "document" springing from our current website.

The constructive project may take the form of a socio-literary experiment, 
depending on the interests of IMG participants who will continue in next year's
incarnation of the seminar.

Larry Friedlander
Department of English
larryf@leland.stanford.edu

Timothy Lenoir
Department of History
tlenoir@leland.stanford.edu

Sha Xin Wei
Libraries and Academic Information Resources
xinwei@leland.stanford.edu

ATTENDEES 1995-96

This is a list of people who have attended the seminar since September 1995.

Drew Bamford           Engineering                           drewcb@leland.Stanford.EDU
Alan Bush              Philosophy                            bush@csli.stanford.edu
Marcelo Clerici-Arias  Economics                             marcelo@Leland.stanford.edu
Margaret Crane         Digital Pictuers                      mcarter@digipix.com
Gayle Curtis           CDR     / RR&D Center office          curtis@roses.stanford.edu
Judith Anne Dolan      Drama                                 dolan@leland.stanford.edu
Doug Felt              Taligent                              doug_felt@taligent.com
R. J. Fleck            CCRMA                                 rjfleck@ccrma.stanford.edu
Ross Frank             History                               rfrank@Leland.stanford.edu
Larry Friedlander      English                               larryf@leland.stanford.edu
Tom Hare               Asian Studies and
                            Comparative Literature           thare@leland.stanford.edu
Richard Holeton        Writing and Critical Thinking         holeton@leland.stanford.edu
Bob Horn               Information Mapping, Inc.             bobhorn@well.com
Micahel Irmscher       German Studies                        irmscher@Leland.stanford.edu
Natalie Jeremijenko    Center for Design Research            njj@Cdr.stanford.edu
John Keeling           English                               keeling@leland.Stanford.EDU
Charles Kerns          Media Center                          kernsc@leland.stanford.edu
Karen Lee              TOK Design                            karenl@cats.ucsc.edu
Larry Leifer           Mechanical Engineering                leifer@Cdr.stanford.edu
Claude M Reichard      Writing and Critical Thinking         reichard@leland.stanford.edu
Joss March             English                               josslm@leland.Stanford.EDU
Diane Middlebrook      English                               dwm@leland.stanford.edu 
Caroline Nastro        Drama                                 cnastro@leland.Stanford.EDU
Eva Neuberg            Religious Studies                     neuberg@Kzsu.stanford.edu
Greg Niemeyer          Art                                   otto@Leland.stanford.edu
Daniel Potter          Interval Research                     potter@interval.com
Eva Prionas            Linguistics                           eva@csli.Stanford.EDU 
Benjamin Robinson      Modern Thought and Literature         jamb@Leland.stanford.edu
Janice Ross            Athl Pe & Recreation                  jross@leland.Stanford.EDU
Christopher Salter     Drama                                 clsalt@leland.stanford.edu
Sarah Sarojini Jain    History of Consciousness, UCSC        ssjain@cats.ucsc.edu 
Richard Schoch         Drama                                 schoch@Leland.stanford.edu
Sha Xin Wei            Human-Computer Sys. Arch./SULAIR      xinwei@Leland.stanford.edu
Barbara Tversky        Psychology                            bt@psych.stanford.edu
Bill Verplank          Interval Research                     verplank@interval.com
Decker Walker          Education                             decker@leland.Stanford.EDU
Michelle Wang          Computer Science                      mqwang@pcd.stanford.edu
Ann Weinstone          Modern Thought and Literature         weinstne@Leland.stanford.edu
Meg Worley             Comparative Literature                meg@steam.stanford.edu
Maria Yang             Center for Design Research            mcrane@leland.Stanford.EDU
Patience Young         Art Gallery and Museum                patience.young@Forsythe.stanford.edu
Paul Yung-Wei Chong    Symbolic Systems                      paulc@Leland.stanford.edu