Digital Mural: Landmark Or Visual Blight?

"Yesterday, it featured succulents - six inoffensive close-ups of cacti and yucca. Today, the lineup calls for colorful paintings by the Mexican muralist José Orozco. Sunday, it will be photos of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

WGBH activated a three-story screen this week that can display shifting images from its headquarters on the south side of the Massachusetts Turnpike in Brighton, giving thousands of drivers their first glimpse of what the station hopes will become a landmark, on par with the Citgo sign and the gas tank painted by Sister Corita Kent."

"But the screen, which WGBH calls a digital mural, is forcing the public radio and television station to walk a fine line between promotion and education with the photos it displays, and to weigh concerns about safety for the 500,000 eastbound drivers who will pass it every week. Images of the station's hosts are out (too promotional). So is anything risqué (poor taste), anything with text (potentially distracting), and anything with a narrative arc - such as a lion chasing a gazelle, which might draw motorists' attention for too long."