The Rise of Hypermedia Programming
In March 1989, Tim Berners-Lee presented a document titled "Information Management: A Proposal," where in the bottom left corner of the diagram appeared a word that would forever change our relationship with information: "Hypermedia." That modest term, relegated to a corner of the diagram, represented a revolutionary vision that his supervisor described as "Vague, but exciting." Three decades later, that "vague but exciting" idea has radically transformed the way we communicate, learn, and create.
The history of hypermedia programming is essentially the story of how layers of abstraction have been built upon one another to bring the potential of computing closer to people without specialized technical training. In the 1950s, with the birth of languages such as Fortran (1957) and Lisp (1958), programming was an activity exclusive to mathematicians and scientists with deep knowledge of computational architecture. The gap between conceiving an idea and materializing it digitally was immense.
During this foundational period, pioneers like John McCarthy not only developed programming languages but also coined concepts such as "artificial intelligence," laying the theoretical groundwork for what decades later would enable the democratization of digital creation.
The true turning point for hypermedia programming came with ARPANET (1969) and later the World Wide Web (1990). These infrastructures did more than just connect computers; they connected disciplines. Designers and programmers began a dialogue that would permanently blur the boundaries between their fields.
In the 1990s, while JODI (Joan Heemskerk & Dirk Paesmans) explored the aesthetic possibilities of code and glitches, a new professional figure was emerging: the hypermedia designer. A hybrid figure capable of thinking about both the user experience and the system architecture that supported it.
This convergence of design, art, and programming generated the creative explosion that took us from the classical web to the contemporary internet, now powered by artificial intelligence, where technology ceased to be merely functional and became an expressive medium in its own right, ushering in the era of participation and co-creation.
Programming interfaces have become more accessible, languages more intuitive, and learning communities have flourished. Open-source software communities have transformed programming education, creating an ecosystem where solving technical problems has become a global collaborative activity.
The 2010s marked another qualitative leap with the integration of Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and, crucially, artificial intelligence into the hypermedia designer’s toolkit. AI assistants integrated into development environments are driving a paradigm shift in programming. Whereas before, hypermedia designers needed to translate their ideas into code through a long process of technical learning, now they can conceptually express what they wish to implement and receive functional code suggestions in real-time.
By "rise," I mean that we are at a privileged historical moment for hypermedia design. The gap between ideation and functional prototyping has dramatically narrowed. The layers of abstraction accumulated over decades now allow designers to express themselves programmatically without needing to deeply understand every technical aspect.
Artificial intelligence, far from replacing designers, enhances their creative capacity by freeing cognitive resources previously dedicated to technical implementation. This allows them to focus on truly differentiating aspects: concept, user experience, aesthetics, and the social or cultural impact of their work.
Today’s AI-assisted programming systems can transform conceptual descriptions into functional code, rapidly prototype interfaces, generate graphic resources, and even debug technical issues. The result is a dramatic compression of the development cycle, allowing for more iterations and experimentation.
This evolution is clearly reflected in the projects developed by students, who are leveraging these new capabilities to materialize innovative ideas with a technical complexity that would have been unattainable just a few years ago.
Experimentation with traditional formats has also found a space within this new hypermedia paradigm. In another class project, students designed reactive posters for Urban Furniture or EUCOLES. These interactive posters for Bogotá’s urban furniture respond to environmental stimuli and pedestrian presence, merging graphic design, physical computing, and programming to transform a traditionally static medium into a dynamic experience that interacts with its surroundings and users.
TONOPLAY: An interactive pathway where users generate sound compositions as they move through a physical space. This project exemplifies how hypermedia programming enables bodily movement to be translated into immediate sensory experiences, without users needing to understand the complex system of sensors and algorithms that make it possible. Authors: Evelyn Y. Ávila C., Gabriela Mahecha G., Johana M. Noguera K., and Leidy L. Baracaldo B.
Immersive Stationary Bicycle: An experience that combines physical activity with virtual reality, where the user’s pedaling determines their navigation through digital environments. This project perfectly exemplifies how contemporary hypermedia programming transcends the screen to create multisensory experiences involving the entire body. Authors: Adriana C. Méndez M., Angie N. Gómez R., Juan D. Parra P., Kevin A. Bautista G., María Villamil V., María F. Portilla O., and Valeria B. Velásquez.
Augmented Footprints: This project proposes a digital artistic intervention in augmented reality aimed at enriching the university campus experience. It will develop an immersive virtual environment based on a specific area of the campus, allowing users to interact with it and leave their digital footprint by integrating their own creative expressions into a predefined base illustration. The goal is to evaluate the effectiveness of this methodology in promoting student participation and artistic expression within the university environment. The project evaluation will focus on platform usability, user engagement, and the quality of artistic contributions. Authors: María P. Galindo and Gabriela Mahecha.
Open Letter to Hypermedia Designers
Dear students and creators of digital experiences: we are no longer in the realm of "vague but exciting." That marginal note in Berners-Lee’s document has evolved into a robust discipline with unprecedented methodologies, tools, and opportunities. The excuse of technical complexity as a barrier to materializing innovative ideas is no longer valid. Now is the time to bring these ideas to life and move beyond vague technical execution to rapid functional prototypes with solid technical implementation and scalability.
The question that remains is: now that we can materialize practically any concept, what is truly worth creating? Hypermedia programming has matured, but its purpose remains the same as three decades ago: to connect people, ideas, and information in meaningful ways that enrich the human experience. The real challenge is no longer technical but conceptual, ethical, and social. It is not just about what we can program but about what we should program.
Berners-Lee’s "vague but exciting" idea has evolved into a field of infinite concrete possibilities. You are the creators of those possibilities.
Juan Carlos Arroyo Sosa • jcarroyos.art • Hypermedia Design Lecturer