Maps and Mapping as Metaphors
Maps are made for different territories and different themes — real or imagined — not necessarily related to geography. As symbolic depictions of those territories, traditional maps were limited to a static, two-dimensional representation, whereas today’s maps may be multidimensional, dynamic and interactive. Regardless of the medium, maps are tools of reasoning revealing relationships between elements, properties, and concepts. Mapping creates associations between equivalent groups of qualities that are organized according to rules of correspondence based on a particular system. The word “map,” both as verb and noun, seems very appropriate to describe the essence of dynamic media.
This text, metaphorically speaking, is a concept map describing the territory of dynamic media and its pedagogy as practiced at the Dynamic Media Institute. It represents the humanistic approach to the study and practice of dynamic media with its central focus (as the humanities) on the creation and documentation of cultural artifacts. Those artifacts are human experiences mediated, or perhaps the better term would be “curated,” within the computational complexity of social communication.
Communicating in the language of dynamic media requires fluency in multiple “languages,” “dialects,” and “codes” that have traditionally been segregated into distinct disciplines. It demands a synthesis of multiple points of view on communication. At the Dynamic Media Institute we take advantage of the fact that each participant in the program brings a unique background and vision to the discourse.
Graphic designers and information architects, filmmakers and writers, musicians and programmers all offer diverse points of view and use the different “native” languages of their respective professional fields in describing the human experience of communication. To adequately address the multiple aspects of dynamic media requires a combination of these
expert points of view, accomplished through a difficult dialog along the borderlines of multiple disciplines.
As the DMI program focuses on communication design, our notion of dynamic media is closely related to information and its broad range of meanings from information architecture to data visualization.
Furthermore, the notion of dynamic media is also closely related to motion — and therefore time. Motion, as integral to design, is considered a language of communication in our curriculum, and consequently “motion literacy” — the act of understanding how motion can be used to communicate more effectively — becomes an essential component of our pedagogy.
Lastly, dynamic media is related to interaction. The terms “interaction” or “interactivity” describe an interdisciplinary field encompassing those aspects of art, design, science, and engineering involved in bringing meaningful experiences to people. Interactive systems — human-to-computer, human-to-artifact, and human-to-human — mediate the process of communication and therefore augment the participant’s experience as well as the environment where communication occurs.
Accordingly, in this text the mapping and discussing of dynamic media is arranged within the following groups of concepts: Design for Information; Design for Time and Motion; Design for Interaction.