Bob Stein: Interview

Bob Stein came and gave a talk at CTIN 511 seminar on January 30, 2003. Obviously, Bob has been a key figure in the development of the interactive form as a viable artistic and commercial enterprise, and we were lucky to have him share some of his thoughts concerning the future:

Q: as you conceive it, what does the term *interactive media* represent?

Bob Stein: Interactive media comprises a wide continuum. the defining element is that the user/viewer/reader controls the pace, sequence and direction of her experience with the content. this applies to something as simple as a book and as complex as a multi-player role playing game.

Q: in your opinion, is the general public ready to embrace new media?

Stein: sure; if it's compelling.

Q: in what ways do you think content publishing has been altered by new media technologies?

Stein: Lets' scratch the qualifier "content" since all publishing is about content. the changes so far have been minor in the "old categories" of books, newspapers, and magazines. to the extent that pubolishers in these fields have embraced new media it has usually been ancillarly to their traditional publications -- ie. CDs in the back of textbooks, or internet versions of the NY Times have not displaced the traditional forms in any significant way. The blogging phenomenon is the first really signifcant new form to emerge on the internet in terms of text-based publishing. On the other hand, we have entirely new genres and forms, for example games, which now occupy a significant place in the culutural landscape. And of course peer-to-peer sharing of audio now (and video later) is wreaking havoc with the music business.

Q: Why interactivity? Why not traditional forms of media? What does new / interactive media allow for that is not possible with other forms of media?

Stein: Books are already "interactive" in the sense that the reader interacts actively with the author's presentation -- determining pace and sequence of access, but also being able to pause at any point to reflect. with electronic books readers can become even more active --using the computer's ability to search text strings to navigate easily in a complex data space; linking out to the net as appropriate, engaging the author and fellow readers in discussion.

Q: what could a program like the interactive media division at USC bring to the current media landscape?

Stein: Here's one example.

over time, filmmaking is likely to bifurcate into two quite different strands -- one which makes big spectacle movies intended to be seen in a theater by a large audience and one which makes small personal films intended to be "watched" by one person with the expectation that the material is so dense and complex (like a novel) that the viewer will want to pause and look at various scenes more than once -- to really understand it -- much the way they read a book today. these new films will increasingly have gaming elements and/or simulations. the filmmaker/novelists of tomorrow could certainly come from the interactive media division of USC.