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From DigitalRhetoricCollaborative

Janet Murray is currently a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Literature, Media, and Communication. Prior to coming to Georgia Tech in 1999, Murray was a Senior Research Scientist in the Center for Educational Computing Initiatives at MIT. There, starting in 1971, she taught humanities and led advanced interactive design projects. Murray is widely known as an early developer of humanities computing applications, a theorist of digital media (hyperlink), and an advocate for new educational programs in digital media. Her most notable works are Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, The New Media Reader, and Inventing the Medium.

Contents 1 Career and Contributions 2 Awards and Accomplishments 3 Related Topics 4 References 5 External Links

Career and Contributions

Murray’s first major book is [ Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace . Hamlet on the Holodeck explores asks the question of whether the computer can successfully provide a basis for the narrative form, just like print technology supported the development of the novel and film technologies supported the success of film. Murray believes so. She bases her analysis on the idea that the computer can be used as a medium of representation with a set of distinct properties. Murray attests that the computer is procedural, participatory, encyclopedic, and spatial. Those things afford three characteristic pleasures: immersion, agency, and transformation. Murray’s main point is that the new formats available in computers broaden the possibilities of creativity in storytelling. Murray’s work has been referenced by interactive television producers, game designers, journalists, and filmmakers.

Inventing the Medium was praised by Harry Jacobs, with him saying it was "epic accomplishment, one which we will all be mining for years to come."^[1]

Murray had an active role in developing two new degree programs for Georgia Tech, which were launched in 2004. They were the Ph.D. in Digital Media, and the B.S. in Computational Media.

Awards and Accomplishments

• In Spring of 2001, the American Film Institute (hyperlink) named Murray their Trustee. She is also a mentor of the AFI Digital Content Lab.
• Her projects dealing with digital media curricula, interactive narrative, story/games, interactive television, and large scale multimedia information spaces have been funded by Apple Computers, IBM, Annenberg-CPB Project, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Science Foundation. (hyperlink all)

Related Topics

• Affordances
• Simulated Reality
• Artificial Intelligence
• New Media Art
• Digital Theory

References

• Inventing the Medium
• Hamlet on the Holodeck

External Links

• Janet Murray Twitter
• [