What is EMU?

Emu is the name of a body of research by project undertaken between 1994 and 2002 by Masters by Project Candidate David Cox at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Masters Program of the Centre for Animation and Interactive Multimedia.

EMU stands for "Electronically Mediated Urb" where "Urb" is an abbreviation of "urban space". This CD-ROM based web site comprises the project notes and diary for the events surrounding the project, which set itself the task of identifying what aspects of urban planning and architecture are relevant when designing multi-user online shared 'environments'. This site looks at examples of work from MIT Media Lab, New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program, Beam Software, Digital Cities Amsterdam, Geocities, Alphaworld and other sources.

Colleague Natalie Jeremijenko made a very important point about technology and society in a talk she gave in New York several years ago:

.... technologies are tangible social relations. That said, technologies can therefore be
used to make social relations tangible. Technologies create the material conditions within which we work, and imagine ourselves and our identities.

Natalie Jeremijenko, Researcher, Engineer, Yale, Stanford University

EMU has been an attempt to make social relations tangible, by providing people with tools and services which enable and empower a sense of participation in everyday urban life; both online, in the 'real world' and where the two intersect and overlap.

EMU underwent several different incarnations. One of these was an attempt to replicate the YORB interactive television program at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program. Another was an area on the Palace shared graphical chat service which explored design ideas for multiple Internet participants. A short film which I both wrote and directed called Otherzone offered an opportunity to frame some of the ideas of EMU in a fictional context, where characters were shown casually making use of technology explored in the research project, particularly the area of wearable computers, and augmented reality signage. The zenith of the project was the development of a multi-user online web 'city' which as time goes on continues to attract new 'inhabitants'. The design principle of EMUWEBGRID is simple - if a dot is coloured red on the grid in front of you, it is free for someone to claim. Position your dot nearest the people you think you have something in common with.

Here are notes about how EMU began, and what its key influences were.

EMU has resulted in some surprises over the years, with interest growing in the general area of urban planning and architecture as they relate to electronically mediated culture. People continue to join the EMU WEBGRID, so when you have browsed these project notes, please feel free reader to join the crowd at: http://www.acmi.net.au/EMU