Dramatic Foundations - Computers as Theatre - page 43

What Is Structure?
We can start with the Oxford English Dictionary defi nition of structure (2013):

noun

1. the arrangement of and relations between the parts or elements of something

complex: the two sentences have equivalent structure

2. a building or other object constructed from several parts: The station is a mag-

nifi cent structure and should not be demolished

Aristotle meant defi nition number 1 when he wrote about structure; both ar-
rangement of elements and their relations (dynamics) are contained in his usage. For
dramatic interaction such as this topic proposes, a theory of dramatic structure such
as we fi nd in Aristotle's Poetics guides both the external and internal representation;
that is, notions of structural elements and dynamics will be refl ected in the code as
well as the experience.
I talk about structure a lot, even go-
ing so far as to defi ne myself as an unre-
pentant structuralist. What I mean is that I
believe that the structural system of a par-
ticular work is foundational to its whole-
ness, intelligibility, and beauty. We might
descend here into a long digression, but
that's an argument for another time.
I have worn black and smoked Gaulo-
ises from time to time, but not as a signifi er.

that the poetic process is fundamentally incoherent and defi es explanation;
Aristotle described the process of poetic composition in logical terms. Plato
complained that drama and poetry did not “inculcate virtue”; Aristotle
countered by describing and defending the value of the things that poetry
does accomplish:

[Poetry] aims at pleasure, but at the rational pleasure which is a part
of the good life; by its representation of serious action it does indeed
excite emotions, but only to purge them and so to leave the spectator