Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
computers are really
doing
is an ongoing defi nitional process that heavily
infl uences the kinds of representations that we make with them. Uses in
such areas as statistical analysis and database management have led to the
notion of computers as representers of
information
. Scientists use computers
to represent
real-world phenomena
in a variety of ways, from purely textual
mathematical modeling to simulations that are symbolic, schematic, or re-
alistically multisensory.
The “outward and visible signs” of computer-based representations—
that is, the ways in which they are available to humans—have come to be
known as the human-computer interface, or the Surface in Wardrip-Fruin's
(2009) analysis. The characteristics of the interface for any given represen-
tation are infl uenced by the pragmatics of usage and principles of human
factors and ergonomics, as well as by an overarching defi nition of what
computers are. Interface styles that are indirect—that is, those in which a
person's actions are defi ned as operating the computer, rather than oper-
ating directly on the objects they represent—spring from the notion that
computers themselves are
tools
. The logic behind the “tool metaphor” goes
like this: regardless of what people
think
they are doing (e.g., searching for
information, playing a game, or designing a cathedral), they are
actually
us-
ing their computers as tools to carry out their commands, as are computer
programmers. It follows, then, that what people are seen to be interacting
with is the computer itself, with outcomes like information retrieval, docu-
ment design, learning, or game playing as secondary consequences of that
primary interaction.
As McLuhan (1964) observed, a new medium begins by consuming
old media as its content. For example, the newspaper gobbled up the
broadside in the 17th century as well as the story/report and aspects of the
letter (Stephens 1988). Early fi lm, with its fi xed cameras and proscenium-
like cinemas, began with theatre sans speech as its starting point, with the
addition of titles and motion photography; now it is a medium in its own
right with its own conventions and techniques that the theatre could not
imitate. Both forms survive, but fi lm has found its own language; it has be-
come its own medium. One may say that computers imitate other media:
fi lm, newspapers, journals, and the like. But computers, like fi lm, have de-
veloped their own unique methods of representation and experience. True,
they have embraced and enfolded media like fi lm and newspapers, but
have given them a new twist in terms of authorship, distribution, produc-
tion methods, and interactivity.