Multimedia

Click here to see the transformation!

When we think of "Multimedia", what comes to mind? MP3s and music videos are common answers, and aren't technically incorrect, but they don't go as deeply into describing it as one could go.

The very vague, and at first confusing, sort of "rough nature" of multimedia we were provided with, is...

"A series of time controlling tools working in synergy."

To explain this concept, Professor Echeverry took a spray bottle of some kind of aerosol sanitizer, and while motionless, it was not multimedia, despite having being made of multiple mechanisms. It did, however, become a multimedia object once he began to spray it about the room. It's all about time.

Multimedia (in layman's, commonheaded, boring terms) is easily described as an art that changes.

To reinforce this idea, one could look at the works of Juan Carlos Delgado (a link to an article about him is provided in the caption of the picture, brought to you by the ever elusive creation of the Spaniards, Spanish). A work of his is a room with a few objects, but let's focus on this bronze bust of a girl in a refrigerated room. At first, this does not seems very interesting. But as the time controlling tools of refrigeration magic begin to take place, the art begins to change. Humidity begins to freeze and condense onto the statue, as bronze is an excellent conductor of heat and chill (which is pretty much the absence of heat, because nothing can conduct cold). As people walk in, their breaths and body heat manage to slightly, slightly melt the ice collecting on it, and their breaths and perspiration give off water into the air. This slightly alters the condensing process, and throws a ton of variables in the mix, creating unique patterns and small deviations in ice crystal formations on the statue. These deviations multiply and grow exponentially in significance over time, and as the ice stacks and stacks over a period of days, it snows-over into a dazzling array of detail, completely covering the statue.

See? Time, tools, and synergy. The refrigeration system and the people were the tools (no offence), and the condensation provided the synergy and interaction between the bust, the vapor in the air, the people, and the cold. This struck me as absolute genius, and for a brief moment, I had one of those moments of "Ah! Why didn't i think of that?"