Discursions — Architecture Machine Group, MIT
Here are fourteen videos showcasing the work of the Architecture Machine Group at MIT (now the Media Lab). In my opinion, these demos, created in the late 70s and very early 80s, under the direction of Nick Negroponte and Andy Lippman, inspired the efforts of many of us who explored the potential of interactive multimedia over the next 10-15 years. 
[Note: The Voyager Company distributed the laserdisc commercially. See leaflet below]


Movie Manual

When I first saw this at MIT it blew my mind on two counts. Anti-aliasing had just been developed in the lab and this was the first time anyone had seen decent looking text on a TV screen (the quality of the video doesn’t come close to how good it looked in situ). Also the first time the video appears on what otherwise looks like a normal book page (about 2:20 in the video) it expanded our notion of the page to include audio and video — i.e. the affordances of a book but with the addition of time-based media.

Put That There


Phone Slave

the voice on the phone is Alan Kay. amazing that our voice mail has not evolved in this way.

Aspen Movie Map

Graphical Marionette

FaceMaker

PicassoFile

Stereoscopic Workstation

Archfile

Viewpoint Imaging

Zero Bandwidth

Communication News

DeskFile

Lip Synch

Funk Vignette