Cultural Implications of Integrated Media

The author examines an evolving form of telecommunications information system based on two developing technologies: fiber optics and related hardware as used in Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (BISDN), and hypertext/hypermedia software for management (storage, retrieval and manipulation) of large amounts of data. A proposed form of this telecommunications system is analyzed in a larger cultural and historical context using analytic techniques from the arts and humanities. Comparisons are made with deconstructionism and transformative technology studies, to highlight shared assumptions and practices in art and technology within information systems.