Treffer: Television's Computer Imagery and a New Spatial Aesthetic.

As the viewer watches the opening credits for the program "Entertainment Tonight," the screen comes to life with rotating shapes and spinning geometric patterns. One has the sense of travelling on an imaginary voyage through space. Many of the computer generated displays common now on television use such visual devices as linear perspective, overlapping, and image transformation and rotation to give the impression of a third dimension on the two-dimensional screen. While a number of studies have indicated that such computer generated displays inflict pain and confusion upon the viewer, another interpretation is that the continued presence of such content may be educating viewers to a new aesthetic appreciation of three dimensional depth information, motion, and image transformation. While evidence for this conclusion is largely anecdotal, a body of experimental work suggests that viewers of computer generated presentations and similar video game displays benefit cognitively from their experiences and reach a new level of visual sophistication. Further research in this area is required. (20 references) (Author/GL)