Multimedia framed

Multimedia is the combination of several media forms, More typically, the word implies sound and full-motion video. While multimedia technologists concern themselves with the production and distribution of the multimedia artifacts themselves, information designers, educationalists and artists are more concerned with the reception of the artifact, and consider multimedia to be another representational format for multimodal information presentation. Such a perspective leads to questions such as: Is text, or audio or video, or a combination of all three, the best format for the message? Should another modality (e.g., haptics/touch, olfaction) be invoked instead or in addition? How does the setting affect perception/reception? Is the artifact interactive? Is it changed by audience members? Understanding how an artifact is perceived, received and interacted with is central to understanding what multimedia is, opening up possibilities and issuing technical challenges as we imagine new forms and formats of multimedia experience. In this talk, I will illustrate how content understanding is modulated by context, by the “framing” of the content. I will discuss audience participatory production of multimedia and multimodal experiences. I will conclude with some technical excitements, design/development challenges and experiential possibilities that lie ahead.