The term metamedia, coined by
Alan Kay
Alan Curtis Kay (born May 17, 1940) published by the Association for Computing Machinery 2012 is an American computer scientist who pioneered work on object-oriented programming and windowing graphical user interface (GUI) design. At Xerox ...
and
Adele Goldberg, refers to new relationships between
form and content in the development of new
technologies
Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...
and new
media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Interactive media, media that is inter ...
.
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the term was taken up by writers such as
Douglas Rushkoff and
Lev Manovich. Contemporary metamedia, such as at Stanford, has been expanded to describe, "a short circuit between the
academy
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
, the
art studio and
information science exploring media and their archaeological materiality."
Metamedia utilizes
new media and focuses on collaboration across traditional fields of study, melding everything from
improvisational theatre and performance art, to
agile, adaptive software development and
smart mobs.
Development
As an academic field of study
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
Humanities Lab and
MIT currently run research labs investigating metamedia.
The MIT lab's mission is to provide a flexible online environment for creating and sharing
rich media documents for learning on core humanities subjects. It is led by
Kurt Fendt (co-Principal Investigator and Manager of the Metamedia project) and
Henry Jenkins.
Stanford's lab is principally facilitated by
Michael Shanks (archaeologist) with other collaborators, including
Howard Rheingold
Howard Rheingold (born 1947) is an American critic, writer, and teacher, known for his specialties on the cultural, social and political implications of modern communication media such as the Internet, mobile telephony and virtual communities.
B ...
,
Fred Turner (academic), and
Christopher Witmore. In its mission statement, it describes itself as a "creative studio and laboratory space for experimenting and taking risks...a democratic and collaborative assembly of archaeologists, anthropologists, classicists, communications experts, new media practitioners, performance artists, sociologists, software engineers, technoscientists, and anyone else who wants to join." A recent project is Life Squared (aka Life to the Second Power), an animated archive of the work of artist
Lynn Hershman in the online world
Second Life
''Second Life'' is a multiplayer virtual world that allows people to create an Avatar (computing), avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user-created content within a multi-user online environment. Developed for person ...
. Life Squared is one endeavor of The Presence Project, a live metamedia
performance art
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
project within the Metamedia lab.
Life Squared
The Presence Project stanford.edu
See also
* Meta
* Metatheory
* Metagraphy
References
{{reflist
Information science
New media
Transdisciplinarity