Reaction to the Overture

The introduction or overture as it is called in the book Multimedia: from Wagner to Virtual Reality sets up a platform that enables a variegated discussion on multimedia; its concepts, its theory and its innovations. The difficulty to define what is and what isn't multimedia draws strong parallels to the many great philosophical questions of human culture. To ask the question what is multimedia is similar to ask the questions; what is quality, what is music, what is art. What could have been a minefield of incomprehensible explanations became an elegant platform on which to talk about a subject that is forever changing. A plebeian such as I had no idea what Multimedia consisted of, who would of thought that the seemingly archaic art-form of opera could provide the basis of something so cutting edge as keeping a real-time journal of events on a network of incredibly expanding proportions? The historical view of computer technology has made this subject less boring and more accessible. To think that my personal computer came from the artistic desire to communicate interactively with an audience. Scientific advancements through this introduction ceased to be merely cold unfeeling experiments performed in a laboratory. They became innovations in art and society. The computer becomes a vehicle by which to create, and not just a tool to muddle through daily assignments.