ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes a dialogue about the challenges and opportunities related to implementing applied media studies projects. It demonstrates how applied media studies can lead from theoretical problems in human-computer interaction to practice-based answers in technology design, offering a model for a problem-based, field-specific humanities lab. The book focuses on the two years spent developing Lantern, from 2011 to 2013, and the two years following its official launch, from 2013 to 2015. It discusses applied media studies as a method for developing collaborative teaching practices that directly and rapidly respond to current social and political events. The book explains how shared vocabulary and practice evolve complementarily over the course of a project's development, with examples from two "critical interactive" projects that move from the university into the community and back.
