Bryan Leister

This is a great story about something I’ve been noticing for a while – The gradual disappearance of Flash-based Websites (as he types from his Word-Pressed powered mobile-accessible web site). It goes into much greater detail than I ever could and I think summarizes the state of the field right now. At the bottom are some great examples of cutting-edge html5 technology like Chrome Canopy.

I think Flash really paved the way for high-level user-interactivity and has greatly influenced the field. Will Flash still be influential? It is really hurting them when Apple doesn’t support Flash on mobile devices. On the other hand, does Apple risk losing market share to Android by it’s very ‘Microsoft-like’ behavior?

I really hope and wish that Java applets would become as ubiquitous and well-supported as javascript in browsers. It’s such a disappointment that it Java apps never really work in the browser, at least on a mac, considering Java is an open source framework I don’t know why it’s not supported more by Apple. Maybe it’s not needed with javascript (which has no relationship to Java, BTW) advancing at such a clip, but one can hope!

Next week the College of Arts and Media (CAM) is hosting a MFA Visualization Think Tank with designers, educators and practitioners in the area of visualization from all over the world coming together to help us design the program. Last year, CAM hosted a similar event in Film that was very successful.

Our purpose of this Think Tank is to develop “first takes” for a graduate program that uses art and design methodologies to create visual solutions and/or interpretations for the social, scientific, economic and cultural challenges facing us today

Most of the work will be during two day long sessions but there are several events that are open to the public and I have posted them to my calendar - http://www.bryanleister.com/about/calendar. The main public event is Thursday night at Starz Film center where our guests will talk about their work and answer questions.

Wednesday night, ShiftControl Studios will be talking with students in Digital Design about their work, any UCD student is welcome to attend. This Copenhagen studio is doing some of the most cutting edge work in interactive design and we’re very fortunate to have most of the studio in town for this event.

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iPad versus Kindle

I asked seven digital design students to take a look at the iPad and Kindle, analyze the major points both good and bad and come to a decision about the product. The specific question is what’s going to happen a year from now. Will the Kindle be overshadowed by the iPad, or will it hold it’s own? Is there a market for both kinds of products, a dedicated e-reader and a new type of device?
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