Web
Multimedia – a solution looking for a problem?
In parallel with my career as a professional photographer I have extensive experience of designing and building websites and web applications.
This means that when shooting stills or video I am considering the issues regarding web delivery then and there – not as an afterthought.
Although I do not build websites any more I have done in the past.
Nasty Nick and Big Brother
In 2000 I led a team which produced the first Big Brother UK for Channel 4. While this was a very interesting experience it is not one I would like to repeat.
The most challenging aspect of the site design and build (and there were many) was the design and delivery of the live web streaming – this was at a time when watching any video on broadband was just not a good idea.
However after several adventures it all worked rather well.
My team and I felt immense satisfaction that the main event took place live on the internet and not TV. A taste of things to come.
You can read about the impact of this on the internet in an article by The Guardian’s Mark Lawson here.
Information Architecture and UX Design
Now my main role in new media is as a information architect or user experience specialist – drawing up the blueprints for sites, typically very large ones.
When I first started dabbling in hypermedia in 1988 the general attitude to multimedia was that it was “a solution in search of a problem.” The issue being of course that no one knew what the problem was.
Nowadays we are all swamped with information and going off grid occasionally is a blessed relief. But it’s still not clear what solution multimedia brings.
Telling stories
What multimedia does provide is a range of new ways of telling stories.
Still photographs by themselves. Photographs with audio (‘photofilms’). Video of course. And mixtures of stills, video and audio.
I am lucky enough to have an odd range of skills which mean that I can pick and choose which multimedia tools are appropriate to tell a particular story.
