It is easier to count the hours
children spend watching TV-an average of 16,000 hours in
comparison to 13,000 hours for study before graduation from high
school-than to see why such patterns occur. And it is as easy to
conclude that by the time these children can be served alcohol in
a restaurant or buy it in stores, they will have seen well over
a million commercials. Yet no one ever acknowledges new
structures of work and communication, even less the
unprecedented wealth of forms of human interaction, regardless of
how shallow they are. That particular ways of working and living
have for all practical purposes disappeared, is easily
understood. Understanding why requires the will to take a fresh
look at necessary developments.
Some of today's visual sign systems originate in the civilization
of literacy: advertisement, theatrical and para-theatrical
performance, and television drama. They carry with them
efficiency expectations typical of the Machine Age. Other visual
sign systems transcend the limits of literacy: concrete poetry,
happening, animation, performance games that lead to interactive
video, hypermedia or interactive multimedia, virtual reality,
and global networks. Within such experiences, a different
dynamics and a focus on distinctions, instead of on
homogeneity, are embedded. Most of these experiences originate
in the practical requirement to extend the human being's
experiential horizon, and the need to keep pace with the dynamics
of global economy.
Pages:
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461