topical media & game development
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research directions -- multimedia in context

 In 1998, I organized a multimedia course for PhD. students, together with Lynda Hardman (CWI), entitled: multimedia in context. When defending the position of multimedia & game development in the computer science curriculum, it bacame once more necessary to reflect on the relation of multimedia to its (various) context(s).

First and for all, we may identify the scientific context of multimedia, which includes many seemingly unrelated areas of science:

scientific context


Secondly, we have the societal context. Given the (explosive) rise of the creative industry the list given here is rather poor, and should include at least the various communities that are coming into existence.

societal context


Obviously, there is a strong technological context of multimedia. Without the technology, multimedia and game development would not qualify to be seen as an academic discipline.

technological context


Finally, there is a creative context. However, from my perspective this is intimately tied to a technological context, since at this stage there is still a great need for explorative development, to discover new applications and the aesthetics governing these apllications.

creative context


There should be no need to emphasize that all these contexts are itself one way or another strongly related. In other words, multimedia & game development is intrinsically a multi-disciplinary affair, which even cannot be so easlily taken out of a societal context, in that the value of new media applications is ultimately determined by its adoption in the new digital culture.
[] readme course(s) preface I 1 2 II 3 4 III 5 6 7 IV 8 9 10 V 11 12 afterthought(s) appendix reference(s) example(s) resource(s) _

(C) Æliens 04/09/2009

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