Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality

MULTIMEDIA: FROM WAGNER TO VIRTUAL REALITY
Expanded Edition in Paperback
edited by Randall Packer and Ken Jordan
foreword by William Gibson, coda by Laurie Anderson
published by W.W. Norton


"This book is one start toward a different sort of history…. I
recommend this book to you with an earnestness that I have seldom
felt for any collection of historic texts. This is, in large part,
where the bodies are buried. Assembled in this way, in such close
proximity, these visions give off strange sparks." - from the
foreword by William Gibson

Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality, edited by Randall Packer
and Ken Jordan, is now available in an expanded paperback edition
with a foreword by William Gibson and a new coda by Laurie Anderson.
This collection of seminal essays by artists, scientists, and
critical theorists chronicles the history of multimedia, and has been
expanded to include texts by Richard Bolt, Char Davies, Kit Galloway
and Sherrie Rabinowitz, Janet Murray, and Jeffrey Shaw.

Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality presents the history
behind the interfaces, links, and interactivity we all take for
granted today. It traces a fertile and fascinating series of
collaborations between the arts and the sciences, going back to the
years just after World War II - and even further, to composer Richard
Wagner, whose ideas about the immersive nature of music theater
foreshadowed our concept of virtual reality.

Among the essential articles gathered in the book are the Futurists'
1916 manifesto on cinema, which declared that the new medium would
unite all media and replace the book; Vannevar Bush's 1945 Atlantic
Monthly essay that leads directly to the hyperlinks in today's
multimedia; J.C.R. Licklider's groundbreaking idea in 1960 that
people and computers could collaborate in creative work; Nam June
Paik's 1984 essay proposing that satellite technology would encourage
a global information art; Tim Berners-Lee's 1989 proposal for a
document-sharing network, which became the basis of the World Wide
Web; and William Gibson's discussion of how he came up with the word
"cyberspace." With an introduction to the volume and critical
commentaries on each article, editors Randall Packer and Ken Jordan
lead the reader through key concepts that frame the evolution of
multimedia.

The book is part of a unique hybrid publication project that joins
W.W. Norton, Intel Corporation, and ArtMuseum.net. Online,
Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality is a dynamic, growing
resource featuring hyperlinked texts, a teacher's guide, and a wealth
of multimedia documentation.

Please visit the site at: http://www.artmuseum.net/

For more information: http://www.zakros.com/wvr/wvr.html

Quotes from the field:

"Many of the papers that had profound impact upon my development - to
say nothing of the entire industry - are all here." Donald A. Norman,
author of The Invisible Computer

"What a tremendous gift Packer and Jordan have given… Finally, the
words and ideas of the people responsible for conceiving and building
the hypermediated reality in which we've found ourselves have been
collected in one place. This book may be the Primary Source for years
to come." - Douglas Rushkoff, author of Coercion, Media Virus! and
Playing the Future

"It's a post-,post-, postmodern world, but those who forget the past
are still doomed to reboot it. Excavating the fossil record of our
wired culture, Jordan and Packer uncover the blueprints for the
future we how inhabit." - Mark Dery, author of The Pyrotechnic
Insanitarium: American Culture on the Bring

"This important book brings together key texts and contexts that
begin to delineate the meaningful arts of the future. Educators,
artists, and students involved in art and new media and
interdisciplinary programs will find this book invaluable." - Roger
Malina, editor, Leonardo Journal

Quotes from the press:

"'Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality' reads like a Western
civ of modern media." - Tony Reveaux, Film/Tape World

"The best guide yet on a subject of central importance to anyone
interested in the future of media, and the growing marriage between
art and science….The collection is historically significant, given
that nobody has ever woven together the different threads, thoughts
and impulses that become multimedia, a new form both of media and
culture…. The book flows skillfully from one idea to the next, each
section building on the one that preceded it." - Jon Katz, Slashdot

"In the Norton Anthology tradition, Packer and Jordan bring together
seminal contributions that artists and scientists have made to the
field of computer-human interaction… An evocative whirlwind tour
through 100 years of work… Excellent…" - S. Joy Mountford, Wired

"[MULTIMEDIA is] a key source book in the field of art, science and
technology. This book is excellent in all respects." - Annick
Bureaud, Leonardo Digital Reviews

"Readers interested in the history of multimedia should be enthralled
by this collection of hard-to-find essays…. A remarkable blending
of past and present, these essays remind us that today's wondrous
inventions didn't just spring into existence out of nothingness." -
Booklist

"An important book that brings together for the first time articles
from many different disciplines and viewpoints… It should be a
basic text for anyone who is learning to merge art with technology."
- Boston Globe

"A juicy compendium of historically significant, future-forward
essays." - Flaunt

"A compendium of classic writing about information technology and its
role in society [filled with] some inspired choices." - Lingua Franca

"The editors bring together the major writings by multimedia pioneers
in order to foster a greater understanding, and appreciation, of its
precedents, roots, and revolutionary potential." - Choice

MULTIMEDIA: FROM WAGNER TO VIRTUAL REALITY
Expanded Edition in Paperback
edited by Randall Packer and Ken Jordan
foreword by William Gibson, coda by Laurie Anderson
published by W.W. Norton, $19.95
now available
ISBN 0-393-32375-7