The Art of Interactive Design, Chris Crawford, 2002, Link, Chapters 1-2

• These first chapters were a very interesting take on what “interactivity” is. I had to challenge my personal idea of what “interactive” when thinking about Crawford’s definition, especially when in relation to computers, and also when thinking about all of the other buzzwords floating around about both physical experiences and computer abilities. I am happy the entire book pdf is linked here because I do plan to read the rest over the winter break when I have more time.

The Language of New Media, Lev Manovich, 2001, Link, Intro pg.19-26 & The Myth of Interactivity pg. 55-61

• The first thing this reading taught me is that I have very little knowledge of the history of computer art and what exactly computers were capable of at any point in time before the world wide web. Manovich also pointed out interestingly that we have a tendency to speculate on where a medium may develop instead of documenting early practices as they are — looking back on the history of cinema, we thus feel like we are missing so much because of the records that were kept. What can we do to make the early histories of New Media different?