Dramatic Interactors - Computers as Theatre - page 146

Tours ride at Disneyland (a wild ride combining fl ight simulator technology
with Star Wars content), she turned to me in mid-shriek and shouted, “If
this was real , I'd be scared!” 19
Even in task-oriented applications, there is more to the experience than
getting something done in the real world, and this is the heart of the dra-
matic theory of human-computer interaction. Our focus is not primarily
on how to accomplish real-world objectives, but rather how to accomplish
them in a way that is both pleasing and amenable to artistic formulation;
that is, in a way in which the designer may shape a person's experience so
that it is enjoyable, invigorating, and whole.
When we participate as agents, the shape of the whole action becomes
available to us in new ways. We experience it, not only as observers or crit-
ics, but also as co-makers and participants. Systems that incorporate this
sensibility into their basic structure, open up to us a cornucopia of dramatic
pleasures. This is the stuff of dream and desire; of life going right . It is the
vision that fuels our love affair with art, computers, and any other means
that can enhance and transform our experience.
The experience of pleasure in a whole action is also infl uenced by how
that action is defi ned or bounded. In the domain of document creation,
for instance, my pleasure and satisfaction has been enormously increased
by developments in word processing, document design, and printing
technology that allow me to engage in more of the whole action, from in-
ception to fi nal result. In the days of typewriters (age check), one created
documents that would be happily transformed in appearance through the
process of publication. Through the addition of document design to the
application of word processing, and with the assistance of a good printer,
I can now infl uence the fi nal appearance of a publication through my own
(design and formatting) actions, and I can bask in the sense that the thing
is really done by seeing it in something that closely approximates its pub-
lished form.
The most complex and rewarding result of dramatic action is cathar-
sis , defi ned by Aristotle as the pleasurable release of emotion. That's not to
say that all emotions aroused by a play are necessarily pleasant ones. Pity,
19. Many years later, we went to the Borg Invasion, a motion-platform ride that was part of the
now-defunct Star Trek Experience at the Hilton in Las Vegas. At one point, live actors imper-
sonating Borg appeared through a ceiling panel and grabbed a hapless girl (ringer) and pulled
her away. My younger daughter was REALLY scared—for a few moments.