1. Please write a short response to the lecture from Wednesday. What did you think of the topics Anezka touched on and how do you see them relate to your own practice/your discipline?
Initially, I was surprised to see that the focus of the lecture was more towards the use or technology to create immersion and less if the pen-and-paper storytelling. However, it also made it easier for me to understand each topics and its realtion to immersive storytelling, because many of them were things that I’ve heard of or seen before. Being in the Design & Technology major and in the Game Design pathway, it could be said that many of the examples of immsersion from the past week’s lecture, especially the Flight Simluator, Baby X, or any of the Virtual Reality Experience, are almost directly related to my own practice of creating games and experiences that could be possible through the implementation of technology along with creativity. In addition, I found the the quote from the Computer as Theater book in the lecture which says “Designing human computer experience isn’t about building a better desktop. It’s about creating imaginary worlds that have a special relationship to reality: worlds in which we can extend, amplify, and enrich our own capacities to think, feel, and act,” to be closely related to my practice as a Game Design student. This is because creating an imaginary world that is believable is a something I think is crucial to making great games, which gives the players the reason to allow themselves to be immersed in the game and creates an experience that, rather than isolate the players from reality, would enhance the world aorund the players and allow them to think in new perspectives.
2. Please pick and respond to two prompts from the list below:
- What justifications does Brenda offer for taking an artistic approach to the problem of designing human-computer activity?
According to Brenda, while there are no absolute rules within art, there are still justifications to taking artistics approach to designing human-computer activity. On the first instance, Brenda references the book The Elements of Friendly Software Design (1982) by Paul Heckel, which explained how Heckel observed success when he replaced engineers with artists as the primary creators of his films. Heckel gave examples of both traditional art forms like theater alongside digital examples to prove his point. From Heckel’s perspective, an approach fueled by vision to create believeable environment is more effective. Another point Brenda made was with reference to Ted Nelson, describing how Nelson recognized stage techniques can be used in film. Then, Brenda moves onto describing how, like with stage to film, film techniques now migrate into the computer medium. This suggests that, although represented in different forms, human-computer activity and film still share some structural similarities and therefore, can be addressed with an artistic approach. Both Heckel and Nelson placed importance on art and imagination in the process in which Branda links to the problem of designing human-computer activity by saying that, just like for film and theater, “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.” (p. 35)
- How does Bertolt Brecht describe the relationship between representation and reality?
Bertolt Brecht was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet from the early 20th-century. Brecht described the relationship between representation and reality that “the representation lives between imagination and reality, serving as a conductor, amplifier, clarifier, and motivator,” (p. 37) which would not be fully complete until the people who have experienced the representaion incoporate that experience into their own daily lives. Brenda then explains that Brecht’s view on the relationship of representation and reality also describes the more modern computer-based representations as well. For example, in a video game, players would engage “in a representation that is not the same as real life, but which has real-world effects or consequences,” (p. 37) from the messages implied within the game, which would then affect how the players act in the real world following that experience. According to both Brenda and Brecht, representation and reality are inseperatable interconnections that influence one another and should not be seperated in the design, whether they are theater plays or interfaces.