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Optical illusions & the art of seeing

Explore optical illusions, impossible objects and illusion art with pictures, viewing instructions and explanations. Follow the science and history behind each example, from classic visual puzzles to fractals and camouflage in nature and human design.

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The collection

A pale blue drawing of connected corners whose locally plausible edges cannot form a consistent solid.

Impossible Corners

Oscar Reutersvärd (1915 - 2002), Swedish graphic artist

You should experience a sense of perceptual confusion as you note the paradoxical nature of the corners.

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Axonometric paradox — An axonometric structure resists a single depth interpretation.

Axonometric paradox

Nevit Dilmen

An axonometric structure resists a single depth interpretation.

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Concentric circular bands with repeated black, blue, white and yellow segments.

Rotating snakes

Akiyoshi Kitaoka

A completely still pattern that seems to turn.

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Gray patches interrupting alternating black and white horizontal stripes.

White’s illusion

Michael White

Equal gray bars look different inside a striped pattern.

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The Librarian — A learned figure assembled from books and the equipment of reading.

The Librarian

Giuseppe Arcimboldo

A learned figure assembled from books and the equipment of reading.

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A black-and-white ambiguous portrait that can be read as a young man or an older man.

My Husband or My Father-in-Law

Jack Botwinick (1923 - 2006), American neuroscientist

You should experience a 'Gestalt Switch' between seeing the figure as a young man or old man.

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A frontal view along Palazzo Spada’s short forced-perspective colonnade, towards a small statue.

The Corridor That Grows

Francesco Borromini, with Giovanni Maria da Bitonto

A short colonnade looks like a much longer passage.

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White disks at gray grid intersections over black squares.

Scintillating grid

James R. Bergen; later Bernd & Elke Lingelbach, Michael Schrauf & E. R. Wist

Black dots flicker across a grid of white dots.

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Apollonian Gasket — Tangent circles fill gaps with smaller and smaller circles.

Apollonian Gasket

Classical circle geometry; later mathematical development

Tangent circles fill gaps with smaller and smaller circles.

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Sierpiński Carpet — A square becomes an endlessly nested lattice of holes.

Sierpiński Carpet

Wacław Sierpiński

A square becomes an endlessly nested lattice of holes.

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Wireframe cube with all twelve edges visible and no shading.

Necker cube

Louis Albert Necker

Which face is in front? A wireframe refuses to decide.

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A wooden bowl on white illustrating the tactile aftereffect article.

Tactile Aftereffect

I.M. Vogels Vogels, A. M., Kappers and J.J. Koenderink J. J. (1996)

When you press your hands to the flat surface you should experience the flat surface as curved for a few seconds.

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Enlarged image from the selected gallery entry