Distributed media and arts

Summary form only given. The traditional hierarchical view of data, information and knowledge as various stages of (artificial) intelligence sidesteps a significant stage, namely "experience", which is the main concern of artists. With digital multimedia taking a more prominent role in arts and entertainment, we have much more opportunity to create unique experiences, as well as new challenges to overcome. Of particular interest are those experiences which provide the observer the opportunity to participate in and respond to events. Immersive virtual reality experiments aspire to achieve this, but generally for one specific user. Should we generalize this concept to performances involving multiple artists and multiple audiences, we will then have a distributed media system for performing arts. At the heart of this idea are several questions, such as how digital presentations may affect experiences, or how information may be presented to create a specific experience. From a technology standpoint, a number of research and development issues must be overcome. These provide the means for data to be accurately collected, measured, tested, proven, and delivered, in conjunction with artistic, contextual, and user specific concepts. Progress in this area has been made at a new laboratory for distributed media and the arts.