Optical Illusions

[the_dead_man]

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Most people are familiar with the Ambiguous Vase illusion. Devised by the Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin, we are not sure if we are looking at a vase, or at two faces, staring at each other.


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In 1977, a wonderful 3 dimensional version of this illusion was made, to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth. It was a porcelain vase, but one with a wonderful twist. The profile on one side of the vase was of Her Majesty, but on the other side of the vase, the profile was of Prince Philip. And as you followed the contours around the vase, one profile morphed seamlessly into the other.

Because of this, the vase is asymmetrical - you might almost call it lopsided. And this proved a problem when firing the vases in the kiln - quite a few of them did not survive the firing process. And apparently, of those that did survive, Her Majesty liked the result so much that she bought a number of the vases herself. So what was always intended to be a limited edition, became an even more limited edition!

The particular effect that we demonstrate here is to place the vase on a turntable, so that it is constantly rotating. When you look at one side of the vase, the profile therefore is continually morphing from that of the Queen to that of Prince Philip. The other really nice feature is that because the shape of the mouth changes as you move around the vase, it looks as if they are talking to each other.

[the_dead_man]

Guido Daniele is an Italian multimedia artist and body painter. He has worked in many different media and has also worked for two years in India, when he attended the Tankas school in Dharamsala.

In 1990 he started doing body painting, and as well as painting whole bodies, he also produced a sequence of animals painted on the human hand, which he calls 'handimals'.

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[the_dead_man]

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Have a look at the picture above. Can you see the deliberate mistake?

Some people see it immediately. Others stare at the image, and don't notice it at first. Some people don't see it at all(they must be duds).

[the_dead_man]

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The picture shows a stall in Burkina Faso, in Africa. The owner is looking for customers, but there does not seem to be anything particularly interesting about his collection of plastic bowls and buckets... or are you maybe missing something? Have a close look at the image.

If you were to take a few paces to the left, the view of his shop would undergo an amazing transformation...


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Have you seen it yet?

The shop and the items inside it all combine to form the face of a man.

Not clear yet? You are looking at a head from the side, the nose and mouth are to the right. The brightly coloured items in the shop form a brightly coloured hat.

The end result is a fascinating optical illusion, where a seemingly random collection of objects suddenly becomes a recognisable image!

[inferno-was-here]

count it!


Cool cube!


NOT FOR KIDS!!!

[the_dead_man]

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The picture shows a tiger. Your challenge is to spot the hidden tiger.
Did you spot the hidden tiger?

If not, look more closely at the stripes on the side of the tiger... which spell out 'the hidden tiger.'

[Joshua_pohan]

See the optical illusion below.Do you find anything strange? If not then check carefully you might see some thing strange. (noxide's favorite.. )

Hint : See the road, that is not a normal road

Good one

[the_dead_man]

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Here is the Theatre St Georges in Paris. Have a close look at the picture - things are not as they appear!

OK, this really is a theatre, but much of what you see is fake - it has been painted. This is a spectacular example of trompe-l'œil, and maybe it is appropriate that it is in Paris, since trompe-l'œil comes from the French, with tromper meaning to deceive and l'œil meaning eye.

If you think about it, a theatre is unlikely to have so many large windows - you need to be able to make the inside dark.

Have a look below, and you will see what the theatre really looked like, before the artist got out his paint and brushes, and whisked up this little confection.

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Yes - this was the really rather dismal reality before the artist started work. Not the most prepossessing of buildings! What is really clever is the way that the artist has taken existing features - the real windows say - and worked them into his final design.

[inferno-was-here]

have you learned???

[the_dead_man]

Really cool one

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Here is an optical illusion that came about entirely by chance.

Have a look at the picture, and in particular the two frisbees that you can see.

Initially you might think that the picture has captured a moment when both frisbees are in the air. But that is not the case. Only one frisbee is actually airbourne. Can you see what is happening? A clue - look at where the shadow falls from the man's outstretched arm.

The black frisbee is in the air, and the yellow one is on the grass. But the photographer has captured a moment when the shadow of the black frisbee is in just the right place to convince us that it is the shadow of the yellow frisbee, and that the yellow frisbee is actually in the air.