Between 1980 and 1983 the
Architecture Machine Group at MIT, under the leadership of
Nicholas Negroponte and
Andrew Lippman, undertook a series of pathbreaking experiments in what they called "Media Technology"- "the intersection of film/video, graphics and computer science or their corresponding industries, broacasting, publishing and computers. Media Technology encompasses all of the technical inventions through which people communicate meaning and feeling, using sight and sound and the imagery of the mind. It includes print, photography, movies, radio, television, and computers. It also includes modern technologies of presentation or display like the hologram, digital video and hardcopy, which serve as intermediaries between man and the vast banks of information. The work at the laboratory has centered on ways to enhance the two-way intellectual interaction between man and machine which will make stored information a true extension of the individual's mind" (publisher).
As a demonstration of their research, in 1983 the Architecture Machine Group produced
Discursions, a videodisc containing demonstrations of many of their projects. This videodisc was distributed by Voyager Press.
Some the material was also presented at ACMSiggraph and is presented in the
Art Show Archives
