What’s next…teleportation? While recent crises have put telecommunications (especially streaming video) into sharp focus, multimedia interactions have long been an important part of our social lives. Things change, though. Phone calls largely gave way to texting and videoconferencing. Person-to-person videoconferencing expanded to multiparty soirées. Hybrid content has blended the synchronous and asynchronous. Talking heads become empowered by virtual shared surfaces and objects. Mundane screens get replaced by VR and AR environments for work and play. Sound and sight remain as incumbent modalities for virtual presence, but other senses are being blended in…touch, smell, and even taste. These communication channels have become a critical part of our lives, for work and play, for learning and social exchanges, with colleagues, family, and friends. This course will combine a critique of what currently exists with imagining distant futures, fixing current problems, and simulating near futures to shine a spotlight on the myriad ways we can be our social selves while being physically distant. It’s not all about technology, either….much of what we'll explore involves using forecasting and storytelling to convey compelling scenarios. We may do some simple coding, author a few web pages, mock-up some interactions, and create some envisionment videos, but students won’t need particular skills in these areas to excel in the class.

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