Some interesting ideas came up during Justin and my respective presentations on visual perception last tuesday. What kind of effects are visually overwhelming shooters like Geometry Wars having on our optic nerves (pictured above). How is the drastically reduced color space of video screens effecting our perception? How might we exploit what we know about the way that the visual cortex interprets lines, slits and edges into forms in our processing of moving image making? These are questions that I'm thinking about more after our discussion and am eager to explore in projects I create. If anyone else has any suggestions for further reading on the subject, please leave a comment.

Here are two super simple Processing applets that coincided with the presentation meant to demonstrate motion-based aftereffects (color contingency optional) and apparent motion, respectively.

Spiral
Left and right arrow keys control the direction the spiral spins
Up and down arrow keys control the speed
R, G, W set the background color to red, green and white
Space bar stops the spinning

Apparent Motion
Click the mouse to place a bistable quartet
Space bar clears them

If you are feeling saucy, try staring at the spiral turning clockwise with a red background for 20 minutes, then stare at it turning counter-clockwise with a green background for 20 minutes. For up to a week afterwards, when looking at a black and white spiral turning clockwise, it ought to appear pinkish while a counter-clockwise spiral will appear faintly green.