Glossary
general
media:
from wikipedia:
Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data
Media (arts)Materials and techniques used by an artist to produce a work
design:
There are many definitions of design. In general, design describes a process of taking previously unconnected elements and arranging them in a new, meaningful, useful or pleasing manner.
digital (media):
Information or media that can be / is represented as a sequence of nubmers, and so stored to, manipulated on and retrieved from digital computers. All documents on current personal computers, videos, music, text, web pages, etc. are in a digital form.
analog (media):
Information or media that is not represented mathematically or cannot be stored in a digital format. Acoustic music, film, drawings, paintings, are all examples of analog media.
new media:
from wikipedia:
Media that can only be created or used with the aid of modern computer processing power
time based media:
A grab-all term to include any visual or auditory media meant to be experienced with the element of time. A still photo is not time based, a slide show presentation of a series of photos is. Time based usually implies intentional control of the element of time by the author of time base media.
studio:
An intensive, hands-on course of instruction or exploration.
Design Process
pin up:
A review process for a project in process. The Designer or designers typically “pin up” sketches, drawings, etc. and present and explain their thoughts about the project.
crit:
Short for critique. In a design setting refers to constructive critisism of a work in progress, including evaluation, suggestions of potential directions for improvement.
sketch:
In a design context, meaning any rough or partial representation of a piece of work, of a concept or idea or series of ideas. To sketch something is to make a first attempt at representing it, whether on paper, a white board, a computer screen, in clay or with a stick in the dirt. Sketching is a means of exploring ideas.
bubble diagram:
A kind of rough preliminary diagram of something being design or considered. Objects, concepts, ideas, elements are drawn as “bubbles”, labeled and positioned and connected by lines, words or symbols in order to examine, understand or explain relationships, components. A bubble diagram can be a very useful form of sketch.
brainstorming:
A creative process used to generate ideas and solutions to problems. A topic area is suggested and participants suggest thoughts related to the topic. No evaluation of the relative merit of the suggestions are made. The goal is to achieve a flow of thought which can generate the largest possible array of possibilities. The resulting ideas and concepts are evaluated later.
visual performance / installation
live:
In media art and presentation, means an act or actions performed at the same time that the results are seen, heard or felt. “Live” often also implies that the actions are being performed in the same place that the results are experienced. For example, a rock band playing “live” is typically performing songs in front of a “live” audience, in the same room.
live mix:
Refers to a stream of video or audio or both which is composed live, on-the-fly. Sometimes includes live cameras as sources.
real time:
Similar to live. A broad term that refers to events simulated by a computer at the same speed that they would occur in real life. Real time visual effects are those that can be applied and immediately experience, as opposed to those which need to be prepared ahead of time.
VJ (Video Jockey)::
Derived from DJ (disk jockey), a somewhat inaccurate term that is meant to refer to an artist who mixes or creates video content live, in real time. This term is commonly used to refer to live visual artists who remix video content in accompaniment to music. VJ’s often work at parties or dance events.
video mixer (mixer):
A piece of electronic equipment which allows an artist to selectively combine video signals, mixing more than one video stream into a single output. Often used for live performance.
Digital Media Tech:
DVD:
Digital Video Disk. An optical media disk, designed to store and play video content. Also the name of a format for video stored on an optical disk. Can also be used to store digital data of any kind.
DVDr:
Recordable Digital Video Disk. A DVD which can have data written to it.
CD:
Compact Disk. An optical media disk, designed to store and play audio content. Can also be used to store digital data of any kind.
CDr:
Recordable (or Writable) Compact Disk. A CD which can have data written to it.
burn:
Write data to a writable optical disk.
rip:
extract data from an optical disk, typically to save data to a hard drive.
desktop:
The top level graphical interface for computer, representing the surface of a desk, with icons and graphical elements for folders, files, trash, etc. In terms of data storage, the desktop is a common location for user files. The desktop exists as part of a computer’s internal storage (hard drive).
hard drive:
A data storage device. Typical personal computers have one or more hard drives, on which are stored software and data files, such as movies, pictures, text documents, email, etc. Hard drives are typically magnetic storage media.
external drive:
Any data storage device which sits external to the case of a personal computer. Typically these are moveable and can be connected to various computers via connectors such as firewire, USB, SATA. External drives can be optical media drives, such as DVD or CD drives, or magnetic media drives.
jump drive / flash drive / thumb drive:
A small portable data drive using solid state flash media.
digitize:
Convert any kind of analog data or data stream, such as sound, video, pictures or maps into a digital file format. Most media must be digitized before it can be used on a computer.
scan:
Digitize a real-world object such as a drawing or printed photograph, using a computer and an electronic scanning device. Used for making digital copies of analog documents and images.
capture:
Digitize analog video. Computer hard ware and software are used to convert frames of video into data files for use on the computer.
byte:
The amount of memory space used to store one character.
kilobyte (”k”):
A unit of measurement used for computer file sizes. Roughly one thousand bytes.
megabyte (”meg” or “MB”):
A unit of measurement used for computer file sizes. Roughly one thousand kilobytes.
gigabyte (”gig” or “GB”):
One billion bytes. One gigabyte contains 1,073,741,824 bytes. Roughly one thousand megabytes.
Video and Time Based Media
frame:
Smallest unit of time in video or film. In video, corresponds to one of the still images in a series which make up a segment of video.
frames per second (fps):
Measure of the number of frames displayed each second during video or film playback. Typical NTSC video runs at 29.97 fps. Typical 35mm film runs at 24 fps. Some video runs at 23.97 fps in an attempt to more closely simulate the look of film.
timeline:
In time based media, such as video,a graphical representation of a sequence. In video or animation editing software, the timeline is a portrayal of a sequence as a line, with a beginning and an end and allows the editor to create or change a sequence visually.
NTSC:
The standard television video signal format used in the U.S., Canada and Japan.
aspect ratio:
A description of the shape of the outline of visual media. NTSC video has an aspect ration of 3:2 (720×480 pixels). Standard definition television has an aspect ration of 4:3. High Definition television typically has an aspect ration of 16:9.
standard definition video (”SD”, “SDTV”):
Television/video signals or systems which are not high definition. Similar to the NTSC standard in the U.S. SDTV typically has a 4:3 aspect ratio and supports a something like 720×480 pixels.
high definition video (”HD”,”HDTV”):
Television/video signals or systems which are higher resolution and detail than standard definition television. Resolutions and frame size vary.
camcorder:
A hand-held, typically consumer quality, portable video camera.
clip:
A short segment of video. Larger video compositions can be constructed from shorter clips through desktop editing.
animation:
Both a verb and a noun. Any time-based media which delivers the experience of a sequence of events to a viewer. Almost always visual and sometimes also auditory. Animation is the process of making non-moving images or objects move.
motion graphics:
Term used to describe certain kinds of digital animation, usually including artwork and/or text, meant to convey specific ideas or meanings to an audience. Animated text on TV is an example of motion graphics.
miniDV:
A video format
codec:
from wikipedia: A codec is a device or program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec may be a combination of any of the following: ‘compressor-decompressor’, ‘coder-decoder’, or ‘compression/decompression algorithm’.
Digital Images and Data
jpeg / jpg (Joint Photographic Experts Group):
A graphical file format which supports millions of colors and compresses well. Also refers to the standard for compressing images.
png (Portable Network Graphics):
A bitmapped graphics file format, similar to GIF, but supports more colors.
gif (Graphics Interchange Format):
A bit-mapped graphics file format. Limited to 256 colors.
tiff (Tagged Image File Format):
A bit-mapped graphics file format. Supports any resolution, black and white and gray-scaled images. Most often used for print applications.
pixel :
Short for “Picture Element”. A pixel is a the smallest divisible piece of a graphic image. On video and computer screens, images are typically made up of rows and columns of pixels of varying color and brightness. The eye combines the pixels into an overall image.
resolution:
The amount of visual information for an image or sequence of images, relative to the apparent size of the image or images. Higher resolution images contain more information and can therefore show more detail. Resolution is usually described in units like pixels per inch.
image size:
Related to, but different than resolution. Image size describes the absolute amount of information stored for any given image. Typically in terms of pixels.
pixels per inch:
A measure of image resolution, expression degree of detail as the number of pixels vertically and horizontally in each inch of screen or document space.
dots per inch (dpi):
A measure of image resolution. Similar to pixels per inch. Usually used in print application.
file size:
The size of a computer file in terms of data units (typically kilobytes,megabytes or gigabytes). A file’s size, for instance a digital movie file, determines how much space it takes up on a hard drive or other storage media.