Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
39 Aspen Movie Map video-disc demonstration, 1978 (1).
in Command and Control through Multiple Media Man-Machine
Interaction'. This was intended as a kind of three-dimensional
virtual space that a user could interact with. In
, the Architecture
Machine Group created the Aspen Movie Map (illus.
1978
). This was
a system that simulated driving through the city of Aspen in
Colorado, via a computer screen (illus.
39
). Built using videodiscs it
enabled the user to navigate through the city, and even choose the
season in which they are travelling. It was, and indeed remains,
one of the most sophisticated systems ever built. It exemplifies the
interdisciplinary approach that Negroponte encouraged and which
was demonstrated in his appearance as an installation artist at Jack
Burnham's 'Software' show. Between
40
Negroponte and
ex-MIT president Jerome Weisner put together a proposal for a
successor to the Architecture Machine Group, The Media Lab. This
was intended to bring together the different strengths found at MIT,
including computer programmers, but also psychologists, film-
makers, musicians, designers, anthropologists, designers and others
who could contribute to its stated aim of studying the possibilities
of information and communication technologies. The Media Lab
was one of the first places where ideas about multimedia, which had
1979
and
1980
