Module 18. The future of multimedia

A dream...

There are numerous trends that are shaping the future of digital media technologies. Consider the following scenario:

Ubiquitous computing and the Internet of Things are ideas promoted by some researchers and industries about how computers will be integrated in our future lives. Instead of a single, clunky box (which we currently know as the personal computer) dominating our lives, computers will be embedded seamlessly into our everyday reality so that we hardly notice all the tough, complex computation that these hidden machines do in order to make our lives easier and more interesting. Your garden could be equipped with sensors and tiny computers that will alert you when your plants need watering. Your refrigerator could be smart enough to know which of your favorite food items you are running low on and send you a text message when you are next in the grocery store. This is also an example of locative media, which takes into account the geographical position of a user to deliver information that is deemed to relevant to them. Another example of locative computing: as you are walking down the street in some city somewhere in the world, you begin to feel hungry. You take out your mobile phone, which alerts you to what restaurants are nearby. Since your phone also keeps track of what your food allergies are, as well as how much money you have in the bank and therefore how much you ought to spend for a meal, it suggests a nearby restaurant that suits your budget and your food preferences. Thanks to augmented reality technologies, your phone comes equipped with a tiny LCD projector that can be used to project images directly onto your eyeglasses and shows you the route to your restaurant as a digital overlay to the real world. You find the restaurant and wait for the server to come. While waiting, you play a game on your phone; what you don't realize is that the game is actually helping medical researchers answer difficult problems on protein folding. This exemplifies yet another twist in the frontiers of computing research: human-based computation. Meanwhile, the people in charge of creating the semantic web promise to revolutionize your life by organizing the mind-boggling complexity of data on the Internet, while the people who advocate for blockchain technology claim that it will solve many of the world's problems.

... and the likely reality

This, at least, is the dream: technology should make your life easier and more meaningful. But will it? Consider the following "counter-scenario" to the previous narrative:

The software embedded in your smart fridge needs product updates, but it turns out that its wireless signal receiver is incompatible with the WiFi router you have in your home. Since your mobile phone has access to the Internet, it could act as a modem that your fridge can connect to. Problem is, your mobile phone service provider would charge you a fee every time you do so. Frustrated, you go the mobile phone manufacturer's website and try to send them an email, but you can't remember your login information; you're beginning to lose track of all the passwords and user logins that you keep for the various web sites you have a membership with. Meanwhile, you realize that the semantic web is premised on the idea that everything can be neatly categorized, and that everyone will agree on the categories. While you grapple with how digital technology has made your life both simpler and more complex, you agree that it has made it more interesting. But you're not even giving a second thought to the fact that all digital equipment requires that hardware are produced using toxic chemicals, using metals that have been largely unsustainably mined by powerful mining companies that leave the area they've mined completely unusable for any other purpose, and using ever-dwindling supplies of petroleum to power the hardware production process.

The future of digital multimedia is in dynamic and uncertain. How do we navigate this ever-shifting landscape? What principles can help us prepare for the rapid changes in the media and technology landscape? We examine some concerns regarding the future of multimedia.

The digital divide

The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.

- William Gibson, quoted in The Economist (2001)

One issue of concern for the future is what is known as the digital divide, which refers to the fact that not everyone has equal access to multimedia tools and technologies, and it is almost certain that this will still be the case in the future. Activity 18.1 asks you to consider the issue of the digital divide from two different perspectives.

The two resources presented in Activity 18.1 provides two contrasting view regarding connectivity: the first is that it is important to connect as many people as possible in order to maximize human potential; the second is that mere connectivity isn't going to solve fundamental problems that humans face in terms of getting along with each other. Can you think of other examples of social or political problems in which adding technology could (but not necessarily will) help?

The need for digital media literacy

While literacy is 'simply' the ability to read, functional literacy is a useful measure of literacy which defines a functional literate person to be one "who can engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective function of his or her group and community and also for enabling him or her to continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his or her own and the community's development" (UNESCO, 2002). Others have proposed an even more succinct definition of functional literacy: it is the ability to "read well enough to function in a complex society".

One of the central concepts in media literacy lies in the understanding that media forms and products are always created to achieve a specific purpose, and that purpose may be at odds with the purposes of the user viewing, listening, or otherwise experiencing these media forms and products. Activity 18.2. unpacks these ideas in more detail.

The future of media modalities

Recall how we initially defined multimedia as the simultaneous presentation of two or more media modalities, the experience of which can be altered through user interaction. Basically, multimedia = multiple media modalities + interaction according to our initial definition. We can thus began thinking about the future of multimedia by considering two basic questions: "What is the future of media modalities?" and "What is the future of interactivity?" Let us attack the first question in an indirect way, by asking a different question, as you will see in Activity 18.3.

The future of media consumption and interaction

The strategies we use to consume and interact with digital media in the future might be much more varied than we do today, and might impact our lives in ways we cannot yet foresee clearly. Consider for instance how livestreaming has made an impact not only in the the way we share our lives with other people (Bryan, 2016) but even how we can regard our everyday life as monetizable experiences that we can sell to other people (BLMP, 2018).

Activity 18.4. is a case study on imagining the future of one aspect of interactivity: gestural interactions.

From Multimedia to New Media

Throughout the course, we've explored a complex association of ideas, examples, theories, and topics related to the idea of 'multimedia'. We used the metaphor of a four-layer cake to organize the complexity of digital multimedia into a framework that allows us study it as a set of technical, creative, individual, and social concerns. And yet we have barely begun to scratch the surface of the topic.

Indeed, armed with a richer appreciation of the topic, you are now in a better position to revisit and entirely rethink the answer to the question: what is multimedia? We can revisit the original question and arrive at a somewhat different set of answers by looking at a term that evolved from the original concept of multimedia: new media. In many ways, 'multimedia' and 'new media' refer to many of the same things. The term 'new media' after all is a direct descendant (so to speak) of 'multimedia' .

However, 'new media' carries with it an acknowledgement that the digital nature of much of contemporary media (which you studied in Unit 2) opens a whole range of properties to multimedia beyond interactive, multiple media modalities, as you will see in Activity 18.5.

Manovich suggests that new media are governed by the five fundamental principles:

1. Numerical representation: in new media, content is represented digitally

2. Modularity: the discrete nature of digital representation means that the representations can be partitioned into discrete chunks, and can thus be combined and recombined

3. Automation: because content can broken up into discrete chunks and is represented numerically, it is subject to algorithmic manipulation

4. Variability: because content is easily replicated (because of numerical representation), recombined (because of modularity), and transformed (through algorithmic manipulation), new media is highly variable

5. Transcoding: the kind of media content we generate is shaped by what our technologies afford us. This means (with respect to our current (2018) technologies) we will begin to make more content that is numerically represented, modular, subject to automation, and amenable to variation.

You might be wondering: where is the idea of interactivity in way of understanding new media or multimedia? As you would come noticed from Activity 18.1, Manovich suggests that 'interactivity' is not a useful term, in part because interactivity is simply the natural consequences of numerical representation and modularity. (You might have to read more of the book to fully capture his argument.)

You might be asking yourself, "So what?" Why does Manovich's way of defining new media or digital media matter? And what does this have to do with the future? I will leave you to discuss this with your classmates, and perhaps you will come to appreciate it better throughout your study at BAMS (and particularly in MMS 194, New Media Art).

The contribution of the arts and humanities to the future of digital media

One of the interesting points from the Manovich's book is his assertion that the invention of the computer is linked to developments in textile production. Innovation always comes from somewhere, and its sources of inspiration may be found in the most unlikely places. Artistic practice is one such place, which is why courses such as MMS 194 and ARTS 1 (Critical Perspective in the Arts) are important to your BAMS studies. Indeed, at various points in the course, you may have noticed the role that the arts have played in the evolution of new media. (Recall the the website From Wagner to Virtual Reality from Activity 9.2 in particular.) Activity 18.6 asks you to reflect on this further.

Congratulations and a conclusion (kind of)

Congratulations on completing MMS 100, and welcome both to the BAMS program and to UPOU! I hope that this course has helped prepare you for (and gotten you excited about) the challenges and opportunities ahead of you. I would like to encourage you to take some time after MMS 100 reflect on how well the BAMS program and the learning environment provided by UPOU are suited to your interests and goals, and to your personal situation.

In the spirit of the commitment to lifelong learning on which UPOU is founded, instead of ending MMS 100 with a final, definitive statement, I would like to instead conclude with an activity (Activity 18.7) that will encourage you to take the learning beyond the formal program of study that you will be taking up at BAMS.