OPINION THE WAY I SEE IT

There is another side of this new transmedia: co-develop-ment, co-creation, co-ownership. In this new world, we all produce, we all share, we all enjoy. Teacher and student learn together achieving new understanding. Reader and writer create together. Game player and game developer work together. This is the age of creativity, where everyone can participate. Everyone can be a designer. Everyone can be involved.

The personal computing revolution has been both liberating and restricting. We have gained access to powerful technologies for communicating with one another, for creating art, music, and literature. Everyday people could now do extraordinary things. At the same time, we became trapped by the confines of a keyboard, mouse, and screen. Instead of actively engaging the world, we spent our days in front of keyboards and screens, typing and pointing.

Today we are moving beyond
the constraints of the mouse,
screen, and keyboard. Now we
can merge all the benefits of the
information revolution with the
benefits of movement and activ-
ity. We can post notes on build-
ings where only the intended
receiver can see them, or we can
let everyone see them, whatever
we wish. We can play games or
hold meetings with people all
over the world, moving, gestur-
ing, and acting.
Photograph by Niklas Pivic

Products were once designed for the functions they performed. But when all companies can make products that perform their functions equally well, the distinctive advantage goes to those who provide pleasure and enjoyment while maintaining the

power. If functions are equated with cognition, pleasure is equated with emotion; today we want products that appeal to both cognition and emotion.

Consuming versus Producing:
Spectator versus Creator
There is a major difference
between the experience of con-
suming and producing, or if you
will, between being a spectator
and being a creator. In the tradi-
tional view of media, most of us
are consumers. Artists and com-
panies produce, while the rest of
us consume. We are spectators.
There is nothing the matter
with being an audience member,
a consumer, or a spectator. It is
how we have come to enjoy the
great works of art and literature.
We go to galleries to view, the-
aters to watch, libraries to read.
We can be casual or engaged,
watching from a distance or
becoming deeply embedded
in the events of music, opera,
a painting, a video, or a book.
We can become emotionally
involved, weeping or laughing as
the scenes unfold.
But there is a great difference
when we are actually engaged in

• Most IKEA furniture is designed to be assembled by the consumer— an effort that reflects the creativity of the manufacturer, not the user.

January + February 2010