Interactive Media: Theory and Technologies of Representation
October 1995

What time?	Thursdays  4-6?, biweekly?

Location?	Sweet Hall conference room 303,
		http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~xinwei/pub/img/img.html

Contacts:	AWS -- keeling@leland.stanford.edu, xinwei@leland.stanford.edu
		 WS -- larryf@leland.stanford.edu

What are some themes? 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.

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.

What is an appropriate format? The seminar can have two aspects: (1)
regular 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 might discuss a theoretical issue or
artifact and situate it with respect to some design problems.  We can
have a series of prepared responses to the presentation, as well as
some discussion of the practical implications of the theoretical
approach for practical issues. 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.

Topics visited last year (partial list):

	Case study: the flexible classroom.
	Metz's typology for film;
	Lakoff's study of categories; 
	Objectivist semantics, physical symbol system hypothesis, speech act theory, and 
		criticisms (Putnam-Lakoff, Derrida, Pratt)
	Systems theories (Parsons, Luhmann)
	The "design - theory" tension


Some topics emerging from previous seminars.

	apparent dichotomies between design and theory, particularity and abstraction
	objects/artifacts
		design
			theories or ideologies
				rip. da capo...

	Performance
		Music performance (CCRMA  - Chafe?, Goldstein-McNabb?)
		Theatrical performance (Friedlander, Laurel)
		Multimedia art (Slayton)
			Embodied theories of action and meaning (Maturana, Varela, Rosch, M. Johnson)
	Meaning systems, 
		Systems theories
			Topology
			Dynamical systems 
	
	Symbolic  artifacts I: visual representations, meaning (Tversky?)
		Iconic/mimetic vs ideographic systems
		Visual sign languages (written-sign pidgins: Horn)
		Graphic design
		Musical notation

	Symbolic artifacts II: language
		Literature and literary theory (Schnapp?)
		Symbolic architecture and design
			Sociology of design (Winograd,Star, Latour?)

	Symbolic artifacts III: computational artifacts
		Scientific visualization, modeling (Lenoir?, Edwards?)
		Design of data structures, tools vs languages
			Ideologies:
			   Artificial languages: economics, animation - ScriptX
			   Models (Varian; a-life & complexity)
			   Graph metaphor in linguistics, hypermedia (Landow?), AI (Winograd) 
				Metric spaces and differential geometry (Sha)