Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
selective, multi-sensory representation and a representation that squashes
sensory variety into a dense and overheated glob (see McLuhan 1964).
Multi-sensory experience offers advantages that go beyond engage-
ment, as media theorist Tom Bender (1976) describes:
The kinds of information we receive from our surroundings are quite
varied, and have different effects upon us. We obtain raw, direct infor-
mation in the process of interacting with the situations we encounter.
Rarely intensive, direct experience has the advantage of coming through
the totality of our internal processes—conscious, unconscious, visceral
and mental—and is most completely tested and evaluated by our nature.
Processed, digested, abstracted second-hand knowledge is often more
generalized and concentrated but usually affects us only intellectually—
lacking the balance and completeness of experienced situations. . . . In-
formation communicated as facts loses all its contexts and relationships,
while information communicated as art or as experience maintains and
nourishes its connections.
Bender's observations have been supported quite persuasively in
computer-based educational activities. Educational simulations excel in that
they present experience as opposed to information . Learning through direct
experience has, in many contexts, been demonstrated to be more effective
and enjoyable than learning through “information communicated as facts.”
Direct, multi-sensory representations have the capacity to engage people
intellectually as well as emotionally, to enhance the contextual aspects of in-
formation, and to encourage integrated, holistic responses. This broad view
of information subsumes artistic applications, as well as traditional knowl-
edge representation. What Bender calls “direct experience,” plus the experi-
ence of personal agency, are key elements of human-computer interaction.
Empathy and Catharsis
In drama, the audience experiences empathy with the characters; that is, we
experience vicariously what the characters in the action seem to be feeling.
Empathy is subject to the same emotional safety net as engagement—we
experience the characters' emotions as if they were our own, but not quite;
the elements of “real” fear and pain are absent. When we are agents in
a mimetic action, our emotions about our own experiences partake of the
same special grace. When I took my then-fi ve-year-old daughter on the Star
 
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search