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A primary role for corporate R&D is to wow investors and competitors via splashy sexy demos that your company is not only cutting edge but is actually reinventi
by randcraw 7y ago
A primary role for corporate R&D is to wow investors and competitors via splashy sexy demos that your company is not only cutting edge but is actually reinventing the business. This is true for the media, communication, art, HCI, and architecture industries as well as science- or engineering-based ones. The Media Lab was a venue to promote those kinds of innovations in ways that papers in research journals never could.
The Media Lab brought together a diversity of nontraditional tech interests and capabilities in one place to explore how cutting edge ideas in how we interact with information might disrupt everyday life in artful ways, creating cool demos to titillate the masses and foment fear in the hearts of competitors.
And it largely worked, for the first 15 years or so, anyway. But eventually, Being Digital (or WiReD) wasn't all that disruptive or cool any more, and the bloom was off the rose.