science

Metamedia

Metamedia is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Metamedia rather than just read about it. In short: The term metamedia, coined by Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg, refers to new relationships between form and content in the development of new technologies and new media. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the term was taken up by writers such as Douglas Rushkoff and Lev Manovich.

Key takeaways

Metamedia belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Metamedia to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Metamedia from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The term metamedia, coined by Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg, refers to new relationships between form and content in the development of new technologies and new media. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the term was taken up by writers such as Douglas Rushkoff and Lev Manovich. Contemporary metamedia, such as at Stanford, has been expanded to describe, "a short circuit between the academy, the art studio and information science exploring media and their archaeological materiality." Metamedia utilizes new media and focuses on collaboration across traditional fields of study, melding everything from improvisational theatre and performance art, to agile, adaptive software development and smart mobs.

Development

As an academic field of study Stanford University Humanities Lab and MIT currently run research labs investigating metamedia. The MIT lab's mission is to provide a flexible online environment for creating and sharing rich media documents for learning on core humanities subjects. It is led by Kurt Fendt (co-Principal Investigator and Manager of the Metamedia project) and Henry Jenkins. Stanford's lab is principally facilitated by Michael Shanks (archaeologist) with other collaborators, including Howard Rheingold, Fred Turner (academic), and Christopher Witmore. In its mission statement, it describes itself as a "creative studio and laboratory space for experimenting and taking risks...a democratic and collaborative assembly of archaeologists, anthropologists, classicists, communications experts, new media practitioners, performance artists, sociologists, software engineers, technoscientists, and anyone else who wants to join." A recent project is Life Squared (aka Life to the Second Power), an animated archive of the work of artist Lynn Hershman in the online world Second Life. Life Squared is one endeavor of The Presence Project, a live metamedia performance art project within the Metamedia lab.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Metamedia

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Metamedia claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Metamedia before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Metamedia ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Metamedia

In research: Metamedia appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Metamedia in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Metamedia is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Information science, New media, Transdisciplinarity, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Metamedia outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Metamedia in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Metamedia means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Metamedia out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Metamedia in simple terms?

Why does Metamedia matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Metamedia?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Metamedia.