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things that may never have existed in the real world before (Nelson 1990).
The role of imagination in creating interactive representations is clear and
cannot be overrated. In an important sense, a piece of computer software
is a collaborative exercise of the imaginations of the creator(s) of a program
and the people who use it.
Imagination supports a constellation of distinctively human phenom-
ena that includes both symbolic thinking and representation making. There
is a story about a monkey and some bananas that every undergraduate
psychology student has heard. A researcher places a monkey in a room
with a bunch of bananas hanging from the ceiling and a box on the fl oor.
The monkey tries various ways of getting the bananas—reaching, jumping,
and so on—and eventually climbs up onto the box. A person in a similar
situation would rehearse most of the possible strategies in her head and
actively pursue only those which seemed promising, maybe only the suc-
cessful one. For the monkey, the focus of attention is the real bananas; for
the human, it's what's going on inside her head. Imagination is a shortcut
through the process of trial and error.
But imagination is good for much more than real-world problem solv-
ing. The impulse to create interactive representations, as exemplifi ed by
human-computer activities, is only the most recent manifestation of the
age-old desire to make what we imagine palpable—our insatiable need to
exercise our intellect, judgment, and spirit in contexts, situations, and even
personae that are different from those of our everyday lives. When a person
considers how to climb a tree, imagination serves as a laboratory for virtual
experiments in physics, biomechanics, and physiology. In matters of justice,
art, or philosophy, imagination is the laboratory of the spirit.
What we do in our heads can be merely expedient or far-reaching,
private or intended for sharing and communication. The novels of Louise
Erdrich, for instance, or the plays of Bernard Shaw, create worlds where
people address issues and problems, both concrete and abstract, and en-
act their discoveries, responses, and solutions. These representations are
wholly contained in the realm of the imagination, yet they transport us to
alternate possible perspectives and may infl uence us in ways that are more
resonant and meaningful than experiences actually lived.
Art is the external representation of things that happen in the head of
the artist. Art forms differ in terms of the materials they employ, the way
the representations are created, what they purport to represent, and how
they are manifested in the world. Different forms have different powers—
to engage, to provide pleasure and information, to evoke response. But
