Ancient voices and cyberspace: exploring the past to reshape the future

Explores the aesthetics of narrative, visual images, music and action in primitive oral cultures as a foundation for new forms of human-computer interaction in electronic communication. Primitive cultures throughout the world use storytelling, visual designs, music and ceremonial rituals to define personal and social identities as well as to define position and navigation in the physical world. In primitive cultures, communication is defined by time-based structures, not fixed structures. These communicative structures are always in flux, always in the state of becoming. This paper illustrates the parallels between the temporal forms of communication in primitive cultures and the time-based structures in interactive electronic communication. The paper examines how the aesthetics of primitive designs and music can form the foundation for new computer interfaces that build perceptual bridges between cultures.