Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality

Bys: Randall Packer, Ken Jordan, William Gibson

Book Overview

"I recommend this book to you with an earnestness that I have seldom felt for any collection of historic texts," writes William Gibson in his foreword.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393049795
• ISBN13: 9780393049794
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 394 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Fantastic

This book has shaped me in ways I barely have words for. It is a must read for anyone interested in Interactive Media Design, what we used to call Multimedia. I have used it in the classroom as both a student and a teacher. It has proven invaluable in the creation of my own Interactive Narrative Design theory. While clearly in need of an update (I'm looking at you Randall), I could not be without it.

Great Intro to this Topic

I had to get this book for a class, but am very happy I was introduced to these theories. I'd recommend it for anyone interested in the topic of where online media is going.

It is a digital world we live in...

With the progression of human culture in the digital age developing as it is, it's intriguing to look back at even the recent past and see where we've been and where we were thought to be going. The collection of writings in this volume are invaluable and often shockingly ahead of their time. Anyone who expects to be successful in the future - in this ever-evolving digital world - would benefit by reading this book, and sooner rather than later.

An Excellent Resource for Digital Media Enthusiasts

From Futurist Cinema, to artificial intelligence, to cyberspace, this collection highlights the origins of multimedia, its influences, its directions, and its future possibilities. It includes an insightful and comprehensive introduction by Packer and Jordan themselves, and the authors they have chosen to include in this work reflect the vast landscape of multimedia in its many iterations: Vannevar Bush, William Gibson, Norbert Wiener, John Cage, and Janet Murray, just to mention a few. This book is a must-have for anyone interested in peeking below the surface of multimedia evolution.

The book is a must read; the web site is a must see!

This book is a must read for anyone interested in modern art and culture, and where its going. The companion web site on www.artmuseum.net is a brilliant compliment to the book, with 50 video clips, rare photos and other treats. Finally, a publishing project that "gets it" how to use the web + printed book in a way where the sum is greater than the parts. Its amazing to see how long artists and scientists have been working (alone, and in some cases together) towards this goal. Prehaps the following decade will witness a true "waking up" by the mass culture to this new syntax, new reading-practice, of multi-media hyper-texted information. This book may mark a point in time where we started acknowledging the depth and extent of our post-Guttenburg world. Bravo to Randall Packer and Ken Jordon for pulling this project off.