IAT 265 1Jul 18, 2014

IAT 265

Process Intensity

Jul 18, 2014 IAT 265 2

Outline

g Process Intensityg Geometry

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Process Intensity

g Process intensity - term coined by Chris Crawford

g Refers to the “crunch per bit” ratio– How much processing does the computer do on the data?

g Instantial (Sampled) assets – data displayed by computer – Sound files– Bitmaps– Text– Animations– …

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Instantial assets: Temptation

g When one first learning to program, instantial assets provide immediate reward– For art and humanities students, might feel

more “safe”

g But, instantial assets– Don’t make use of the unique properties of

computational media– Limit possibilities for interaction– Create an authorial bottleneck– Are computationally “opaque”

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The essence of the medium

g The essence of the computer as a representational medium is not– Intervention in the production or display of 3

dimensional forms or visual imagery (tools)– Interaction with a participant/observer

(interactivity)– Control of electro-mechanical devices (installation)– Mediation of signals from distant locations

(communication)

g The essence of the computer as a medium is…Computation, processes of mechanical manipulation

to which observers can ascribe meaning

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Computation = code + rhetoric

Code m

achine

Rhe tor ic a l m

a chi ne

Uninterpreted computation

Physical symbol system

Complex causal flows

Rhetorical strategies

Interpretation

Representation

Overuse of instantial assets blocks flow between code and rhetoric

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Instantial assets limit interactiong More degrees of interactive freedom require more

complexity of response– As the interactor can do more, the program needs to do more

g Responses generated from instantial assets…– Limit response to combinations of assets– Require more assets as the range of response grows– Can be an authorial bottleneck

g Instantial design tends to limit interaction or collapse response

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Computational opacity

g The meaning of instantial assets are opaque to code– Example: code that triggers video clips can’t

reason about or manipulate the meaning of the clips

g This opacity limits the code’s ability to resequence these assets in meaningful and interesting ways– Assets must be designed for sequencibility or…– Assets must be “opened-up” to the code

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But instantial assets aren’t “bad”

g Can tap into rich meaning systems– Complex connotations, emotional flavor…

g We don’t know how to procedurally generate rich instantial assets– This can quickly become an AI complete problem– Purely procedural work may be overly abstract

g Need to appropriately balance the use of instantial assets and procedurality – Develop strategies for manipulation of instantial

assets