It’s a Brave New Media World,

After All

by Clodine Mallinckrodt

Three recent theatre productions in Massachusetts included projected video footage that performers interact with: Paul Wagner’s THE GOD SHOW, THE IMPERFECT STORM II by Mud Up! Productions and the ERIC IDLE EXPLOITS MONTY PYTHON tour. Is this the effect of New Media? To investigate this broad term and industry, let’s meet MA women In The Know.

Capturing Someone’s Essence

Last year artist Kathy Desmond exhibited THE AUNTIE SERIES at Endicott College, where she’s Department Chair of Visual Communications. The show’s centerpiece enables seeing, hearing and circling Auntie Dot asleep in bed with her cat napping on it. But the head of the sleeping lady is actually a monitor displaying video footage of her asleep, just as the cat and natural sounds are pre-recorded. "Electronic and digital media allows you to control time: someone gets to watch something as if it’s happening now and perceive it as real" notes Desmond.

Jan Craige Singer brought a spunky character – Amelia of Marissa Moss’ book series – to life on the American Girl Web site. How? She says her company, Big Blue Dot in Watertown, got "inside the mind of a 9 year-old who tells stories through her journal." The resulting design convinces any aged user the sub-site is created by Amelia herself. For instance, before sending an email postcard, "Ameliarize" it – that is, translate it into her unique text-and-visuals language.

Personalization

Victoria A. White advocates delivery of personalized information via technology. In the 80’s she taught post-docs to use the internet for research. She built an online divination site, and for fun created travelingdogs.com. When her Northampton company, eclecTechs, redesigned peterpan-bus.com, it was novel to include a search tool. Keen to "wireless technology," Victoria looks forward to "portable devices enabling access to a web application from anywhere" for the retrieval of handy personal information – stock updates, bus routes, or tips for flying with Fido.

Media Consultant Julie Lytle of Cambridge looks "at how New Media (interactive technology) can be used for faith formation and religious education." Americanyouth.org, her project for St. Anthony Messenger Press, is a venue for personal exploration of faith by teens. Julie stresses that New Media "is a paradigm shift in communications," naturally following that of oral to print and print to mass media. And it craves thoughtful direction by government and society: "How we guide this New Media in its rebellious adolescent stage will determine whether or not it becomes what it could be," says Lytle.

Forced Evolution

"New Media has forced other industry professionals to evolve" says Lynn Bannon, President of Bannon Public Relations in Boston. "If a PR consul doesn’t work with a client’s Web Site Manager to ensure that the most up-to-date press releases and press materials are on the site, it’s almost negligence" – a harsh reality for many who don’t even consider themselves in New Media. But Bannon assures: "PR experts today will still be valuable tomorrow: you still need to know how to create messages, identify audiences and sell a story — no matter what the technology."

Four years ago, Gertrude Wallis balanced careers in two fields: electrical engineering and multimedia. But racing to keep up with developments in both made her choose one. "The technology is constantly changing" she emphasizes. Now solely a New Media Developer in Boston, Gertrude anticipates designing "Flash content [animated Web graphics] displayed on cell phones."

Women in New Media

Michele Meek of Boston estimates there are 70% more men than women in top New Media positions. She landed hers by accident: costs of launching a print publication prompted her to instead create newenglandfilm.com, an online resource and community for local filmmakers. "Now I realize it couldn’t be a print publication" she says. "It’s interactive, and updated daily, weekly." Her latest site matches buyers with makers of independent, niche VHS and DVD programs. In cyberspace they transact – or chat. Meek says buyindies.com "never would have worked as a physical store… How does a filmmaker reach a worldwide audience?"

Although "still mainly male-dominated… New Media is a great place for women to get into" says Robin Long, a Web Developer in Topsfield. There is "such as shortage of people, companies are willing to train people, women or men." Do women have a better eye for things, including "look ‘n feel" of digital applications? Long says one of her recent bosses thought so. "[Women] bring in a different perspective, and that’s refreshing," she agrees.

And Access for All

"It used to be that people were very protective of where their content was made available" says Johanna Schlegel. But syndication is key for Salary.com in Wellesley, a compensation information resource where she’s Editor-in-Chief. "Data wants to be free and content wants to be free. It’s of more value to Salary.com if [clients] grab 5 stories a week and post them on their site… than if it’s exclusively available," she says. And in turn, of more value to those who need the information, as it’s simply easier to come across.

Robin Mellecker of VideoLink in Watertown describes web casting as "…taking traditional media, adding that element of the latest technology, and coming up with a new solution for broadcast TV and business dilemmas that have existed for years – logistics, prohibitive costs, instantaneous communications."

Robin gives examples: stock analysts simply step before cameras installed on a trading floor – controlled remotely by VideoLink – to deliver the latest stats and opinions about the stock market to CNN. HR departments – using web casting to present the latest policy on sexual harassment – monitor which employees "tune in" by computer log-in records. What’s to stop a famous Boston chef from streaming a live cooking show, during which the viewer may download recipes, order the book and ask questions? According to Mellecker, nothing. "It’s limitless," she says.

Not Just The Web

New Media isn’t always about internet speed. Artist Jennifer Hall of Do While Studio in Boston demonstrated this during the 1999 Boston Cyberarts Festival. Her interactive sculptural installation – "Acupuncture for Temporal Fruit" – displays 12 domed tomatoes, each with acupuncture needles posed over it. Ultrasonic sensors detect the presence of viewers: the closer you move to a particular fruit, the more aggressively the needles lance it. Over the week the tomatoes – understandably – change shape, and even color thanks to sprouting beards of mold. Over days, instead of sound bites, the exhibit becomes increasingly visually stimulating, always reflecting the effects of audience participation.

These days, Hall evokes seizure activity while hooked up to a computer that records resulting brain activity. From this data she’ll build 3-D models of grand mals and petit mals, which will eventually be cast in chocolate.

Meeting Face-to-Interface

I’ve produced a number of corporate messaging-type multimedia presentations for CD-ROMs sized and shaped like business cards. Next up? DVD – Who can resist handy distribution of the latest animated pitch about a company, product or service, offered with multiple paths, language options and links to the Web? Look forward to such content and functionality migrating to handheld devices: printed business cards, brochures and annual reports may soon be obliterated by people simply synching "wrist-tops." Someday, a face-to-face meeting may be the ultimate, luxury "interactive experience."

New Media: a Paradoxical

Dichotomy

"Media" is any medium employed for the conveyance of expression. The "New" in New Media not only implies the latest and greatest tool developed for this purpose. It also suggests greater accessibility to the tool, as well as the technique du jour for its implementation – which may be no more than a particular combination of pre-existing media. Case in point: video, developed half a century ago, is not new. Nor is theater, developed shortly after the dawn of humankind. Yet the two together is new enough to be considered "New Media" – a constant yet an ever-changing field, positively influenced by fantastic local women!

Clodine Mallinckrodt is currently handling web applications deployment, online training and methodology. As an independent DV movie-maker, she’s experimenting in web-based documentaries. Share your thoughts on new media at clodine_m@yahoo.com.