From “Hot and Cool” to “Film and Database” Mapping New Media Concepts Kevin Brooks, NDSU

Overview Hot and cool, McLuhan, Understanding Media (1964) Immediacy and hypermediacy, Bolter and Grusin, Remediation (2000) Film and database, Manovich, Language of New Media (2002) The big triangle, map of the interface universe. McCloud, Understanding Comics (1993)

McLuhan’s Media Temperatures Hot Cool Photograph Comics Radio Telephone Lecture Seminar Book Dialogue Film Television K-log Personal Blog CMS Facebook / Myspace Academic genres Personal genres

Immediacy Hypermediacy Virtual reality Ubiquitous computing World Wide Web photos Video storytelling Film Web-based comparison of film adaptation of novel; text + video. Literature Remediation journal entries emails Social Political Economic Networks Discrete elements combined: hypermediacy to immediacy. The content of a new medium is an old (or another) medium.

Film (Narrative) Database High definition narrative. Low definition “narrative”. VR Simpsonize me! “ The Reality Effect” “ Today I was an evil one” Hot objects Cool objects Principles of New Media: 1. Numerical representation, 2. modularity, 3. automation, 4. variability, 5. transcoding. Immediacy Hypermediacy The Simpsons Movie HCI Objects in a database can range from hot to cold; the interface (the metaphor or narrative) can be hot, cool, or abstract--so cool it burns?

Big Triangle in its simplest form A visual heuristic for analyzing and generating visual/verbal communication

Bolter and Grusin, “In an effort to avoid both technological determinism and determined technology, we propose to treat social forces and technical forms as two aspects of the same phenomenon: to explore digital technologies themselves as hybrids of technical, material, social, and economic facets” (77). Abstract representations Visual icons and verbal cliches Realistic images and scientific prose High definition (hot) Low definition (cool) Clichés and icons are engaging and adaptable: “ May the force be with you.” Images and words strive for veracity through labels, definitions, descriptions: scientistic discourse. Concrete representations McCloud’s Triangle, Dotting the Lines Myth: narratives and images are archetypal: simple in presentation, but rich in meaning. Realism as art in images and words: immediately recognizable, but more than they appear. Manovich’s New Media Principles; the engine under the interface: 1. Numerical representation 2. Modularity 3. Automation 4. Variability 5. Transcoding Database Abstract art (visual and verbal): Non-representational, highly demanding Immediacy Hypermediacy Film / narrative