Master of Science, Media Arts and Sciences Program, September 1998.

This thesis contains a set of experiments that explore the creation and impact of social traces on digital objects. I hypothesize that layering a "history-of-use" on digital objects will positively enhance their use and build an awareness of distributed audiences. In an attempt to construct a symbolic language of audience participation, this project consists of several initial and one primary experiments which explore the parameters of communicating use-based meta-data in the background and on the object itself.

PatinaMap is an enhanced image-map for the World Wide Web. Through this experiment, I explore several multivariate techniques for representing use-based meta-data. PatinaMap employs active visual filters, audio filters, remote usage-tracking, intra-session paths, synchronous use representation and PatinaText in its attempt to provide users with the feeling of being part of a distributed audience and allow them to benefit from social use.

Get the entire thesis in PDF form (1.4 MB).