I’m talking about a course module statement of intent – Cultures of Multimedia Authoring & Web Design (I think Sue is in the middle of perhaps renaming this module).
For me the issue is that I do web authoring every day. And every day i think it would be nice to be able to play with (spend hours and days playing with) new stuff like canvas elements, css 3 animation and transitions, pushing svg and icon fonts to breaking point, off-canvas elements, yummy javascript libraries…. ummmm…
But…when i get home and I pay attention to my deeper feelings and motivations, they don’t agree on the escapism of my daily work daydreams. Perhaps the comparison at work is simply between the limits and boundaries that we face in creating low-bandwidth high-performance, and what I see other web designs playing with. It’s like being a chainsaw-log sculptor who does fairly satisfying work with storm fallen trees but every now and then when he gets a bit of chain greese in his fingernails that doesn’t come out – he thinks of how nice it would be to be working on a fine piece of oak furniture crafted with the finest of wood, tools and getting paid a fair bit more perhaps too.. It’s just a fantasy though right? i mean we love what we do – we made the choices we made because they go with who we believe we are. With integrity. But for a day???? the fantasy fades fast.
It’s not about playing with new technology for the sake of it. There are things to get done. The ideas that stick around need resolving into something real – if they have been hanging around that long it’s probably because they are crying out to be realised… not saying they are great – but they are meaningful to me. The funny thing is that when you do play with new toys something happens which is interesting. The toy finds the idea – the one that needed a resolution and kept it’s eyes and ears peeled for one. Playing brings them together – that simple.
So the idea for this module?
I’m going to take a leap and say that what i really want to do is make this project open source and make it easy for people to play the game, contribute to it and share their results.