Intro to Multimedia Web – MEDIA 111

Perhaps heresy in present company, but I don’t adhere to the notion that Douglas Adams was particularly prescient with his invention of the device known fondly as “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” (H2G2). Rather, I think it was a happy mashup of his interest in computers (like the Commodore PET) and an ancestor of “The Lonely Planet” series that he carried along with him on his wanderings through Europe.

I have been an avid reader of “hard” science fiction since grade school, and consumed just about anything written by Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, Robert Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Greg Bear, to name but a few. (I still do, having recently re-read a number of their works that I had packed away in a moving box some twenty years ago, and not opened until I moved home to the Pacific Northwest in 2018.) It is in the context of their collective imagination that I evaluate the “technology” put forth by all others, Douglas Adams included. And by that standard, H2G2 doesn’t measure up as an oracle of future technology.

That said, all is not lost with H2G2. It is a bit of a Pythonesque romp (for good reason), and it is entertaining.

And it does set forth a few pearls that are relevant to both the Media 111 experience, and life, the universe and everything.

I’ve experienced sufficient years and s**tshows that I’ve learned to act on what I can control, and (try) not to worry about what I cannot. It’s not been easy, nor is it now, as I am a consummate worrier, but I’ve learned a lot from my wife of thirty-five years, who is anything but. So, Lesson 1: Don’t Panic!

Rather than be paralyzed by the possibilities, I’ve learned that focusing my energy on determining what is critical, and thinking through contingencies (“hope for the best, but plan for the worst”) helps ease the way through “interesting” times. So does keeping a ditch bag, or go bag handy, packed with the essentials, in the event that an immediate change in venue is warranted. Thus, Lesson 2: Know where your towel is!

I’m one of those odd ducks that (now) believes that it’s less about where you go than how you get there. In other words, the journey is everything, it is all-encompassing, and includes all of those you meet along the way. Last, Lesson 3: You might as well enjoy it!

These are the end products of an exercise in the use of Layers in Photoshop for Media 111 – “Pizza and Salad Bar.”

A new verb for the Oxford English Dictionary?  To “photoshop something is to change a picture or photograph using computer software.”  It carries with it often negative connotations.  The altering of images, particularly of young women, to create some terrible “gold standard” of body image for other young women to aspire to is particularly heinous.  So much so that in 2017 France began to require that “. . . any commercial image that has been digitally altered to make a model look thinner will have a cigarette-packet style warning on it.  ‘Photographie retouchée’, it will say, which translates to ‘edited photograph’.  It’s hoped the change will help tackle extreme thinness among models, and body image problems among those who aspire to shapes they cannot hope to live up to because they were faked on a computer programme.”  (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41443027 , 30 September 2017)

But before we rush to condemn the practice of “photoshopping,” let’s first consider its use as an artistic medium of expression, even whimsy.  John Wilhelm, Photoshop Jedi Master, combines his love of photography with his talents as a Photoshop Jedi to place his kids in all sorts of imaginative situations.  (https://www.johnwilhelm.ch/) 

Let’s have John explain: 

Pretty cool, huh?  Now, let’s have a look at video album housing some of John’s work:

This post has nothing to do with the sad state of current affairs.  It has everything to do with questions were posed as essay cues for a recent assignment in Media 111, Intro to Multimedia Web.

How does color make a difference? Does it matter for Universal Design (UD), User Experience (UX), and User Interface (UI)?

We’ll, I thought, lots of different ways – more than I can count.  Of course, it matters, for Universal Design, the User Experience, and the User Interface, collectively the UDXI, perhaps, as they’re all interrelated, I think.

(I managed environmental compliance at large coal-fired power plants for over a quarter of a century.  I interfaced with EPA, DEQ, DOE and COE on a host of matters relating to CAA, CWA, my areas of expertise, especially regarding NSPS and NPDES, and often dealt with things RCRA and EPCRA, NEPA and ESA.  Acronyms are the bane of the communication…)

Fundamentally, we are all in this class to learn how to make our websites both accessible and appealing, so that our visitors will tarry awhile, and come back again and again to see us. 

Regardless of our content, if our style is such that the colours we choose for our fonts and backgrounds are such that our clients cannot absorb the message that we wish to deliver because they cannot see it, or have difficulty doing so, they will neither tarry, nor return.  We will have been found in violation of Principle No. 4 of Universal Design, Perceptible Information, guilty of creating a poor user interface.

If our choice of colours is so foreboding or dissonant as to make the visit jarring or uncomfortable, the experience unpalatable, our visitors won’t stay long, and won’t come back.

So, what do we do?  Follow the Principles – make it readable, make it comfortable, make it welcoming.  A good host puts his or her guests at ease, and ensures that the conversation flows.  So, make damn sure that the content is there, too.

Do colors have meaning or messages on their own?

Yes, of course.  But be careful – what we might think are intrinsic responses to different colours are heavily influenced by preference, personal experience, and culture.  So, be a good hitchhiker, and take along your guide.

How would the GPP of a robot relate to the color it is? (H2G2 reference)

Colour should have absolutely no bearing on “Genuine People Personality,’ or GPP, of a robot – arguably, it is programming, and programming alone.  Marvin would be a depressed passive-aggressive, regardless of his skin colour.

First, let me state that I am not an attorney, although throughout my career I worked closely with them, fought with them, learned from them, and taught them.  With that, what follows is not an exhaustive legal brief, it is opinion based on recollection.  But with that, I suspect I’m not far off the mark.

Once an idea passes from the inner world of the mind of the creator to the outer world surrounding, in virtually any physical form. It becomes the intellectual property of the creator. 

From a legal perspective, intellectual property is protected from unauthorized use by others via the mechanics of copywrite, patent, trademark, and trade secrets.  Note that none of these prevent the unlawful use of intellectual property.  They, do however, provide the legal avenue to attempt to recover damages from unauthorized use.  They are important in that regard.

For my own purposes, copywrite protection is of little financial value – I don’t expect to realize financial gain from my “art.”  If I do, I do.  But the well-being of my family is not dependent on the income derived from the effort.  Copywriting does, however, provide some protection against misrepresentation and/or fraud resulting from the theft my work.

For the purposes of my fellow classmates, however, those who expect to earn a living from their art, it is arguably a crucial step in their creative processes.  The income derived from their artistic efforts will not just support their art, it will help to support themselves, and their families.  For them, I believe it to be essential.

What are my responsibilities to the creators of media?  To me, it lies in my upbringing:  Give credit where credit is due.  Don’t just take it, ask first if you may use it.  If you borrow it, return it in as good of condition, or better, than when you took it.  And fill it up with gas.

Why?  In my thinking, an artist’s work is first an expression of self, an extension of self.  To make use another’s work for one’s own benefit without first seeking, and receiving, her permission, is not only robbing her, potentially, of her livelihood, it is to rob her of a bit of her soul, herself, as well.  To do so unknowingly and unwittingly is perhaps forgivable.  To do so with intent is callous disregard, disrespect, of another.  And a true lack of honour and integrity.

How do I protect myself?  By copywriting my work.  That way I can exercise my rights to my property in court.  (Also, I think that the © symbol serves as a deterrent, much like “Protected by…” decals and Ring doorbell cameras.)

And now for something completely different . . . 

Chapter 8 of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy opens with:

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy … has been compiled and recompiled many times over many years.  It contains contributions from countless numbers of travelers and research. 

After a while the style settles down a bit and it begins to tell you things you really need to know…”

Not unlike the genesis of Wikipedia, and the “management” of its content. 

Much as the BBC series did, Hyperland struck me initially as a Pythonesque romp through the frontiers at the time of interactive media.  No surprise, given that the author, Douglas Adams, wrote for Monty Python’s flying circus (which was my first surprise).  As I watched, what captured my interest the most was that degree to which the ideas on the frontiers of interactive communication, and the supporting platforms, had advanced in not that many years, but a portion of my lifetime.

It reminded me of a talk my Dad and I had, a year or so before he died; I was probably twenty.  We often visited – in retrospect not enough – and when we did, about many things.  This day we talked about what had come to pass in his lifetime, specifically about how technology had so remarkably advanced, and that much of what was taken for granted did not exist when he was born in 1898 – no cars, nor airplanes, no NASA, and in the realm of communications, no radio, no television.

(A little context would probably help here:  I was the product of a second marriage; Dad started his second family when he was well into his fifties.)

Dad enjoyed reading Dick Tracy, a comic strip about a detective that Chester Gould penned from the early thirties well into the seventies.  The Two-Way Wrist Radio arrived on the scene in January 1946, and was later upgraded to a Two-Way Wrist TV in the early sixties.  Dad was certain that someday the fantasy wrist radio would become a reality.  In fact it did, inspiring Martin Cooper’s invention of the cell phone, and arguably was the predecessor of later smartwatches; the Apple Watch comes to mind.

In my lifetime has come The Hitchhiker’s Guide, and from it, perhaps, technology.  Inspired by a stolen copy of Ken Welsh’s Hitch-hiker’s Guide to Europe, it became, as Suze Kundu describes in Forbes, “…the go-to reference material for any universal traveller…described in [H2G2] as being ‘a small, thin, flexible lap computer,’” from which, “with the tap of a few buttons, information on any topic appears on the screen.”

Not much different from what I’m using to write this.

Much as the BBC series did, Hyperland struck me initially as a Pythonesque romp through the frontiers at the time of interactive media.  No surprise, given that the author, Douglas Adams, wrote for Monty Python’s flying circus (which was my first surprise).

Other surprises . . .

First, for those of us who might seemed pressed by the due dates for this class, I found it humorous that Douglas Adams was deadline-challenged.  As Erik Van Rheenen notes in “16 Fun Facts About The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” published in Mental Floss:

“Adams was a notorious deadline-buster. He was famously quoted as saying, ‘I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by.’ As he was polishing The Hitchhiker’s Guide, his publishers called Adams and demanded he finish the page he was writing. To ensure he didn’t hear the deadline’s whoosh, the publishing house immediately sent a bicycle courier to pick up the manuscript.

When writing the fourth book in the Hitchhiker “trilogy,” So Long and Thanks For All the Fish, Adams was locked in a hotel suite for three weeks with his editor (and girlfriend) to ensure the book got written in a timely fashion.”

I did give the H2G2 game a go.  I did manage to turn on the light and bash about the room, but succumbed to a bulldozer crashing through the wall.  The game appears to be merciless.   (Not surprisingly.)  It reminded me of Zork, one of the earliest text-based interactive computer games, and certainly the first that I played.  Amazing where technology has gone since then.

Oh, but this is interesting stuff . . . some much to dig in to and digest!  The four bite-sized paragraphs that follow were excerpted from the Getty Museum website: https://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/exhibitions/bauhaus/new_artist/#content  

They in some fashion resonated with me, my history, my philosophy.  Read on and find out how.

“Architects, sculptors, painters, we all must return to the crafts! For there is no such thing as ‘art by profession.’ There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman. Merciful heaven, in rare moments of illumination beyond man’s will, may allow art to unconsciously blossom from the work of his hand, but the foundations of craft are indispensable to every artist. This is the original source of creative design.”

From a previous post of mine:  “Be genuine and show your passion!  Boots don’t make the cowboy.  The genuine article always stands apart from the knock-offs.  (And, from a business perspective, commands a higher price.)  Why?  Head and hands together produce a product.  Add the heart, the passion, and art that product becomes.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re framing houses, framing pictures, or framing thoughts, the art shows through.” 

“The first students who arrived at the Bauhaus were confronted by a peculiar provision outlined in the school’s program. One of its key principles dictated that students participate in extracurricular activities such as “theater, lectures, poetry, music, [and] costume parties,” at which they were expected to contribute to a “light-hearted” or “cheerful” atmosphere.”

A long time ago, during orientation before I began my first term of college, my advisor, whom I’d just met, sat down and outlined the next two years of my academic life.  In that plan, one of his goals was to “get that H&SS (Humanities & Social Science) crap out of the way early.”  And, regrettably, I did – but for a Photography course my junior year, the balance of my undergraduate and graduate experience was all math and science, basically STEM.  Nor did I take advantage of all the opportunities I had all over campus to experience to broad spectrum of possibilities that is art – for free!  I didn’t realize until much, much later what an incredible loss of opportunity for that was, and thus when my kids – every one a science or engineering major –  started university, I strongly encouraged them to enroll in one class in the arts, literature, or history.  For the most part they did; I’ve learned a lot from them since.

“The singularity of the circle suggests the holistic nature of a Bauhaus education, in which individual students representing diverse disciplinary backgrounds were to come together in pursuit of a shared mission to reform art, design, and society.”

This time short and sweet:  In my experience, teams comprised of individuals of diverse talents and disciplinary backgrounds in general had better ideas, built better stuff, and got it done sooner . . . and had a helluva lot more fun doing so.  Try putting four lawyers and a wannabe (me) in a room to write a simple four-sentence paragraph.  Thank stars they had an engineer (me) along.

“The founding faculty at the Bauhaus were united in their conviction that the project of building the new artist should be driven by artistic experimentation and spiritual striving. Only a holistic education that considered mind, body, and spirit could prepare students to create the total work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk).”

Arguably, not an original thought (but a good one nonetheless.  Consider:

“He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”

Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, although there is no hard evidence to support that claim.  Nonetheless, I do wholeheartedly agree.