What They Say
The Digital Cinema Society spotted an article by Mike Nesmith of the Monkees who died just before Christmas that was published in ‘Videography’ in 1990. The article is an intriguing forecast about cyberspace and virtual reality. He also highlighted the importance of digital video in enabling the virtual world and he also highlighted the need to learn how to use the potential new storytelling medium.
What We Think
Initially, I thought, ah, how prescient Nesmith was. However, thinking about it, around the early ’90s there was a big hype about VR, although the technology was very crude compared to today. (I wrote my first consulting project on the topic of VR in 1994 when Virtuality was being heavily promoted) Then again, I was a display technologist that was confident enough (or at least unemployed enough!) to start my own consultancy, while he was a rock and roller and movie maker. His point about the need for new tools and methods for storytelling are still, however, germane. (BR)