摘要：The age of mechanical reproduction had profound effects on the creation, distribution, and
perception of art and other cultural forms (Benjamin, 1992). As the age of digital
reproduction progresses, change is becoming equally, if not more, radical. The speed and
scale of technological development presents a series of complex challenges for research. This
has become evident in human-computer interaction (HCI), a field of study that emerged from
¡°man¨Cmachine studies¡± (Dix, Finlay, Abowd, & Beale, 1998). As well as acknowledging the
existence of women, the new title reflected the shift from the mechanical to the digital age; but,
in the last 5 years, there have been such major changes in the study of HCI that this title now
seems dated. When computers were largely confined to the workplace, it was clear that
interacting with them was a specialized activity that necessitated study. Computing technology
is now a part of the way we cook, clean, work, communicate, and play; it is, as the title of this
journal declares, a human technology. HCI as a title seems at once too narrow and too broad. It
includes interaction with microwaves, dishwashers, and credit cards but also the creation of
image, music, and text. Emerging technologies offer new possibilities for the creation and
delivery of artworks, new modes of operation within artistic communities, alternatives to the
traditional view of galleries, and new means of appreciating older cultural forms.
