Inventing the Medium

Janet H. Murray argues that digital media is not just a new distribution channel but the birth of a new medium whose expressive conventions are still being invented. She emphasizes that every medium is both a set of technical affordances and a cultural form shaped by practice. Like the novel or cinema in their early days, digital media has not yet crystallized its Storytelling, interaction, and design languages. Murray highlights the responsibility of designers and authors to explore the expressive possibilities of interactivity, navigation, and procedural representation in order to shape the digital medium’s future.

See Building Shared Structures of Meaning. dmx.berlin

MURRAY, Janet H., 2003. Inventing the medium. NINCH Building Blocks Workshop. October 2000. pdf

WARDRIP-FRUIN, Noah and MONTFORT, Nick (eds.), 2003. The New Media Reader. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-23227-2.

– Computer as an Expressive Medium, Medium of Expression