Hamlet on the Holodeck

Janet Murray writes that there are probably not two more difficult things to predict in this world than the future of art and the future of software. In Hamlet on the Holodeck, Murray fuses art and software to create a culmination of "new media". Her outlook on the future of "new media" is an optimistic one. Murray ventures into the world of Star Trek in order to theorize one of its grandest features, the holodeck. In the holodeck, one can live out his inner most fantasies. Imagine your participating in a digital staging of Little Red Riding Hood as Red Riding Hood. Imagine your being able to recreate the story as it move along. Maybe you and the wolf end up as friends, lovers, or enemies; the choice is yours. Through holographic image, one can create virtual reality with unlimited, unpredictable choices. Choice is ability to recognize alternatives and possible consequences, thereby enabling the selection of that which is most desirable and admirable. Being the creatures that we are, we make choices in everything we do. We want to expand our being able to make choices toward stories.

Recreation seems to be the basis of Hamlet on the Holodeck. Murray believes that new audiences want to move beyond watching a story. New audiences want to experience the story. "The movie-riders are providing evidence that audiences are not satisfied by intense sensation alone. Once people do go "into" the movie, they want more than a roller-coaster ride; they want a story" (Murray, 50). She goes on to make reference to theme park rides that tell stories, such as Jurassic Park and Jaws. But the mission here is to bring the theme closer to us; close enough to us to make choices in the story. Order to achieve such a goal, we will need a stronger human to computer interaction format. The question seems to be how do we get there? This question is timeless in its essence. Hackers answer this question repeatedly, daring to reinvent technology as we know it.

Hackers know that they want to experience stories as do many of us. To experience any story, we must go beyond everyday interaction with computers. As Nicholas Negroponte theorizes, we have to move from atoms to bits. In Murray's case , we moving from story-telling to story-living. Negroponte and Murray both realize that the future of art and software lie in the hands of hackers. Hacker will take art and programs and fuse them:

“Computer hackers young and old are an excellent example. Their programs are like surrealist paintings, which have both aesthetic qualities and technical excellence. Their work is discussed both in terms of style and content, meaning and performance. The behavior of their computer program has a new kind of aesthetic. These hackers are the forerunners of the new e-xpressionists" (Negroponte, 221).

We have to start small. "The idea that twenty years from now you will be talking to a group of eight-inch-high holographic assistants walking across you desk is not far fetched" (Negroponte, 148). These holographic assistants will get bigger and closer. We are currently in the video game era of story-telling which may some day take the place of on-screen movies. The computer is the medium that will be used to get us to this oasis.

Works cited

Murray, Janet. Hamlet on the Holodeck. New York: The Free Press, 1997.

Negroponte, Nicholas. Being Digital. New York: Vintage, 1995.