What is multimedia?

Multimedia technology integrates digital resources such as words, images, animations, videos, music and sound effects into an interactive whole through programming, and illustrates them in a vivid and dynamic form, giving people a strong visual impact. Multimedia technology can use a variety of interactive means to turn the original boring broadcast into interactive two-way information exchange. Therefore, multimedia means are often widely used in education, advertising and other publicity fields. It is a sharp weapon for enterprise propaganda and product promotion. Its main carriers are CD-ROM, business card CD-ROM, multimedia touch screen, virtual reality, broadband website and so on.

Multimedia art is a new means of artistic expression and information exchange.

The development of computer multimedia technology is giving birth to a new art category-multimedia art. Many people think that the biggest feature of this art category is the creation, appreciation and dissemination of various art forms and types in the traditional sense, which combines new technologies such as digital processing technology, modern communication technology, network transmission technology and multimedia technology.

As a new means of information exchange, it can expand and strengthen the communication and contact among artists, art institutions and appreciators. Through the Internet, art institutions can choose and contact artists more widely and quickly, and artists can also choose and contact art institutions more widely and quickly. Art institutions and artists can also collect the audience's reaction to works of art more directly and comprehensively, keep abreast of the changes in the audience's interests, and keep close contact and timely communication with the audience.

At present, the popular view is that multimedia art refers to the form and process of artistic creation by using the new development of computer technology, especially the research results of information, communication, images and biological sciences.

Multimedia art can be summarized into the following main forms:

1. Create digital images by computer, digital photography, digital camera shooting and scanning.

2. Using laser holographic technology to create holographic works.

3. Making plane and three-dimensional animation by computer.

4. Computer-generated virtual artistic atmosphere, space and environment.

Use computers, synthesizers, tape recorders and CD players to create music and sound wave art.

6. Use computers to create and arrange plays and dances.

7. Network real-time broadcasting, digital interactive TV, interactive movie.

Data show that multimedia art also includes some new media art forms formed by using life gene technology and life engineering technology. Taken together, works that can be called "multimedia art" generally have the following characteristics:

First, it has the possibility of spreading on the Internet.

With the rapid development of Internet, the long-distance transmission of multimedia works of art has become a reality. With the help of digital technology, it is very convenient to make and edit digital images (including digital painting, digital photography and digital video), and the works of art completed by artists are published through the network. An artist can explain his works on the spot and quickly introduce them to art lovers all over the world without worrying about finding distribution channels or exhibition and performance venues.

With the development of audio and video technology, people can watch movies and listen to music at home alone. Artists can perform online at will and sell their works of art directly; You can hold an online concert. No matter where the actors are scattered in the world, they can perform online at the same time. With the help of composition software, music lovers can compose their own music or their favorite poems and post them on the Internet. You can also search, store, play, copy and download digital music online.

Second, it is "interactive"

"Multimedia Art" breaks the traditional way of displaying works in a specific place and at a specific time. Anyone, no matter where, can participate in the interactive process of works as long as they have the necessary internet access conditions and communication technology. Appreciators can modify artistic works according to their own understanding and preferences, and create a new artistic version that conforms to their own aesthetic tastes and ideals. This new artistic version is no longer just an aesthetic experience in the consciousness of the appreciator, but a realistic artistic work through the re-creation of the appreciator. The boundary between creators and appreciators of artistic works will no longer exist.

Bob Dylan, an American rock singer, has released a new record, which allows listeners to reorganize pictures, change musical mood and even allow fans to synthesize sounds. Through the internet, the audience goes deep into the artist's creation, can explore at will and eventually become the author.

This interactivity can also be experienced in virtual museums. Where people can not only watch, but also operate by themselves, modify their dissatisfaction, or redistribute and simulate according to their own wishes, so as to visualize the past, present or future they want. For example, in the virtual dinosaur museum, you can see the natural landscape on the earth during the Jurassic period, as well as various dinosaurs and other animals and plants, and hear the sounds of dinosaurs and other animals. Click on the dinosaur you see, and you can observe the living habits of any dinosaur in detail. You can also redistribute the species and quantity of dinosaurs and other animals and plants, simulate and adjust the climate at that time, and observe the evolution of dinosaurs under different distribution schemes.

Third, it is virtual.

The further development of multimedia and the combination of interactive methods have led to the emergence of virtual reality. Virtual museum is the artistic embodiment of virtual reality.

The Palace Museum in Beijing is conducting a research on the digital application of the "Virtual Palace Museum". Many people who have been to the Forbidden City may have such regrets: some places can't go; Although some places are open, only part of them can be seen; Some collections are not even visible. The Palace Museum cooperated with a Japanese company to develop the first virtual reality work, Hall of Supreme Harmony. Through the three-dimensional cartoon produced by the supercomputer, the wonderful moment of the virtual Forbidden City tour began: opening the Taihe Gate, entering the magnificent Hall of Supreme Harmony, flying to the roof, sitting on the emperor's throne overlooking the interior of the Hall of Supreme Harmony ... This was impossible in the past field trip. Nowadays, with the help of virtual technology, people can easily do all this. Virtual Forbidden City is to build a three-dimensional model of the Forbidden City with a computer, and then collect the physical landscape of the Forbidden City "piece by piece" with a digital camera, and then "paste" it on the three-dimensional model for synthesis, and finally synthesize this digital work. When people visit the Forbidden City, they can have a panoramic view of the huge wooden buildings and nearly one million collections covering an area of 720,000 square meters by manipulating a small remote control.

Network multimedia art will also change our traditional way of displaying and exhibiting works of art: there is no need to collect, display and exhibit in a concrete real space, and there is no need to have the physical form of the works, and everything can be realized in a virtual way. Break the old-style art flow mode led by artists, art dealers (galleries) and collectors. Computer games may develop into computer programming art with the help of computer technology. The realistic scenes and sound effects of computer games enable players to roam in the fantasy world of the game and act according to their own wishes in the programmed virtual reality.

Dinosaurs are giants that existed on the earth in prehistoric times, and humans have never seen them directly. In the movie Jurassic Park, the lifelike infinite charm of the prehistoric behemoth dinosaur designed by computer three-dimensional animation brings people high-grade enjoyment and surprise; Those thrilling waves, spectacular and exciting scenes of bullets and realistic sound effects have brought people a sense of impact.

Fourth, popularization-everyone can participate.

The new art form will provide people with a broader artistic space, especially for those who have no chance or ability to engage in artistic activities before to experience the fun of artistic creation.

We can imagine that the creators of poems, novels, dramas, music and fine arts will have a garden to publish their works, and hundreds of people will jointly create a poem, a painting, a song, a novel or a script on the Internet. This opportunity of human-computer interaction opens up a bright future for people's artistic appreciation, artistic creation and artistic criticism. With the help of the Internet, Xue Cun, a civilian composer, spread all over the country with a flash music work entitled "Northeasters are Living Lei Feng".

Through the online virtual museum, the public can enjoy all kinds of works of art and treasures from all over the world at any time, anywhere and at will, without spending expensive travel expenses to travel around the world. Without the internet, many appreciators of these works of art may never see them. Even if people have money, they can browse the internet as a "preview" before experiencing the works of art in person.

With the help of computer network, art collectors don't have to travel between auction houses to compare prices and inspect works of art, but use art network, a networked database of various works of art information, to sit at home and buy their own collections calmly.

Multimedia art makes art education more distinctive and more suitable for students' interests. Through distance network teaching, students can sit at home and take art courses such as Music Appreciation, Piano and Painting. The development of network art has brought great vitality to the "classroom in the air".

The progress of science and technology and the diversification of human aesthetic taste are pregnant with the formation of various new art forms, and artistic expression will be more vivid and participatory. If the computer network has changed human life, then "network multimedia art" is also changing our cognitive way of "art".