Analysis of Digital Image Properties and Human Preference

The three studies summarized in this paper present evidence that aesthetic preference for visual surface texture is closely correlated with spatial frequency and orientation. The stimuli used were digital versions of real environments, in the sense that they originated in photographs of real surfaces. Correlations are significant, and robust, and they were not effected by identifiability of the images. Theoretically, this points to the possibility that aesthetic preferences for objects in the built environment—‘virtual’ and ‘real’—are not exclusively devoted to culture, memory and association, as post-modern discourse would dictate. Although more work needs to be done, it nevertheless points to the potential that preference for digital/virtual as well as real architectural environments be considered the visual stimuli to which human beings are neurologically tuned. Digital technology provides the means to implement such research, and computer simulations of ‘real’ environments will be the first application. With an ability to adapt aesthetically to the changing human condition, the important questions are how should one adapt such surfaces and under what criteria or under what influence are the adaptations made?