In chapter one of the book "Computers as Theatre" written by Brenda Laurel, author mainly talking about the interface between computer and human. Computer games, as the author states " the 'natural' thing to build with this new technology "(Page1, 15), are typical interface between computer and human because people input actions and the imaginary characters will act. Players can " see, control, and play with"(Page1, 21) the machines. Some people may think the interaction between computer and human is nothing but to distinct parties communicate with one screen in the middle. This simplistic notion of interface is gradually pushed down as technology develops.
Take my personal experience with one application called Flutter as an example. This application can use users' HAND GESTURES detected via built-in webcam in device to play, pause and skip songs & videos in iTunes, Spotify, Rdio, Quicktime, Keynote, YouTube (introduction comes from: link).
It provides an idea how advanced technology changes the conversation between computer and human. Speak of conversation, can human have a direct conversation with ants? In the real world, obviously no. Because there is no common knowledge between human language and ants'. Similarly, mutual ground between computer and human is crucial in human-computer conversation. When I was reading the part, the first thing came out of my mind was computer code. Computer code plays a role as a shared knowledge in this kind of conversation. Programmers write codes in order to let computer act the way they want. Nevertheless, if they make mistakes, computer will not understand their instructions as a result.
Just like Brenda mentions, computer is very much like theatre in many ways. In theatre, actors have to understand how people behave in some certain circumstances so that they can present the show as vividly and lively as possible. For the reason that, every move they make, audience will have a good natural mapping in their head and understand the meaning of the actions. In computer, programmers need to " begin with an analysis of what a person is trying to do, rather than with a metaphor or a notion of what the screen should display "(Page7, 14) if they want to create an effective interface.
Another thing that the theatre and computer have in common is that the role of theatrical scene designer in theatre and the graphic designers in a computer is generally the same. As we all know, theatrical scene designers try their best to use various elements to make the action or environment more real while the graphic designers put most of their efforts at creating vivid objects in applications or systems. That's explains why I consider Macintosh is always more user-friendly than Windows4. The buttons can tell.
At the Page31, writer says that " a person participates in a representation that is not the same as real life but which has real world effects of the consequences ". I find this statement really getting into the point. Take e-mail as an example. When we write e-mail on computer, it does not like writing in the paper. Instead we are actually writing some kinds of codes that made the computer runs like we are writing. However, when those computer codes are saved and sent to someone else in the world, people read it, response it and it does make a change in our life, the real life. Those letters we write on the computer may not even exist as letters, but they do change our life just as the real letters do. Isn's that fascinating?
Another thing is that at the beginning of the class, Prof. Chaz Evans told the class the reason he chose Programming is not only because it is highly developed but also it has an instantly visual feedback to our work. Unlike C++ or JAVA which maybe frustrating to the starters of computing. To most programmers, they would be more excited to watch the completed program actually running on the computer without any error than to look at the final program's code. Even though they are technically the same. The visual pleasure's power is infinite. Next is the prove.
(a programmer is watching his program running correctly)
Computer connects human from the real world to a world full of imagination where everything is possible. We should enjoy this journey and take advantage of it.
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