Magic

Magic prototype design debuts at USC’s Digital Studies Symposium

craig — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:00:23 +0000

Magic co-creator Craig Dietrich presented a prototype design of the Magic interface to a live audience at USC’s Digital Studies Symposium, February 11, 2010.

A Magic reader will see two columns: in the right column are code excerpts; in the left column are cultural materials. Hovering your mouse over specific pieces of the code will reveal media objects describing and annotating the code. The media objects might be textual descriptions, interviews with the creators and users of the software describing its significance, writing about related themes, or a snippet of the front-end project it operates on. Likewise, interacting with the cultural material in the left column will reveal code that produces or engages the material. Using the split-screen, one side examines the “who” and “why” of culturally-sensitive software, the other discovers the “what” and “how”.

Craig Dietrich speaks in front of a Magic prototype design at USC’s Digital Studies Symposium

Vectors-IML NEH Summer Institute fellows featured in Magic gallery installation

craig — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:35:53 +0000

Fellows from this summer’s Vectors-IML NEH Institute in Los Angeles speak about their collaborations and interests in an interactive media installation across the country in Maine. Magic is presently installed at the at Without Borders VI: Conjunction gallery show on the University of Maine campus, and features video interview segments and theme-based navigation to explore the processes by which interactive media projects are produced. Co-produced by Vectors staffer Craig Dietrich with U-Maine Intermedia graduate student John Bell, and L.A.-based installation artist Vanessa Vobis, the team created the installation as an early introduction to Magic, intending a full, Web-based release in 2010.

To see the installation on the Web, please visit http://magic.craigdietrich.com/WithoutBorders

Magic proposes a resource and platform for interactive media innovation

craig — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:07:04 +0000

Software and data innovations are routinely present in projects that examine culture. Magic will showcase these advances and the process, design, and implementation by which they are created. Specifically, Magic is comprised of three core intents:

— To provide a platform for discussion of innovations in interactive media. Through interviews, annotated code, descriptions, and video demos, the magical space between database and front-end design, where programming turns flat data into objects, will be revealed.

— To create a resource for culturally-sensitive interactive media projects, as this project genre often requires a rethinking of approaches in both content and software.

— To act as documentation for open source projects. With many projects hoping to open up their code for reuse by others, but whose development team lacks the resources to document their code and tactics, Magic will be the documentation.

We’re excited to begin development on this resource. To continue reading, please visit the full Magic proposal.