Communication Research in the Design of Communication Interfaces and Systems

Communication research seems forever ordained to consider and reconsider the means of communication, the machinery with which we create meaning. In many ways, communication research is about how humans create techniques and technologies to turn each others' thoughts into each others' experiences. Lately, our attention has been drawn to the circuits, interfaces, and fiber-optic cables that increasingly bind our minds together into giant networks-the giant sea of information and codified experiences recently dubbed "cyberspace" (Benedikt, 1992). The introduction of virtual reality technology spurs us to think once again about the relations between thought, the senses, and the machinery that facilitate communication expression and distribution (e.g., Biocca, 1992aj Biocca & Levy, in press). Before each new communication technology becomes an invisible part of our second nature, its novelty increases our awareness of how much communication is socially constructed (e.g., Biocca, 1987, 1988). As in The Wizard of Oz, the flutter of the curtain makes the human operator of the giant machinery of communication suddenly visible: He is us.