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Multimedia is the use of several media (e.g. text, audio, graphics, animation, video) to convey information. Multimedia also refers to the use of computer technology to create, store, and experience multimedia content. In fine art it is a synonym for traditional mixed media as well as technological new media (ArtLex, NWD). Multimedia is also a pleonasm as media is the plural of medium, hence it is a double plural.

Technological Multimedia can be broadly divided into linear and non-linear. Linear, like a film, plays without any navigation control for the viewer. Non-linear offers interactivity.

The various formats of technological or digital multimedia may be intended to enhance the viewer's experience, for example to make it easier and faster to convey information. Or in entertainment or art, to transcend everday experience.

In 1965 the term Multi-media was used to describe the Exploding. Plastic. Inevitable., a performance that combined live rock music, cinema, experimental lighting and performance art.