Computers as Theatre

Computers as Theatre

Second Edition

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Computers as Theatre

Second Edition

BRENDA LAUREL

Upper Saddle River, NJ ? Boston ? Indianapolis ? San Francisco New York ? Toronto ? Montreal ? London ? Munich ? Paris ? Madrid Capetown ? Sydney ? Tokyo ? Singapore ? Mexico City

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Laurel, Brenda, author.

Computers as theatre / Brenda Laurel.--Second edition. pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-321-91862-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Human-computer interaction. 2. User interfaces (Computer systems) I. Title. QA76.9.H85L38 2014 004.01'9--dc23

2013026412

Copyright ? 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. To obtain permission to use material from this work, please submit a written request to Pearson Education, Inc., Permissions Department, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458, or you may fax your request to (201) 236-3290.

ISBN-13: 978-0-321-91862-8

ISBN-10:

0-321-91862-2

Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at RR Donnelley in Crawfordsville, Indiana. First printing, September 2014

For my grandson, Jem Wade

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Contents

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii

Chapter 1

The Nature of the Beast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Provenance of the Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Interface Metaphors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Interface Interdisciplines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Throw the Baggage Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 A Definitional Digression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Models of the Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 The World's a Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Theatre: More than an Interface Metaphor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Is Drama Serious Enough? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 An Artistic Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Chapter 2

Dramatic Foundations: Part 1: Elements of Qualitative Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Hoary Poetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

The Cultural Backdrop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Drama: Tragedy, Comedy, and Melodrama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 The Four Causes, or Why Things Are the Way They Are . . . . . . . . . 49 The Four Causes in Drama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 The Four Causes in Human-Computer Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

vii

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