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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

Helmholtz–Kohlrausch Effect — Saturated colors can appear brighter than equal-luminance gray.

Helmholtz–Kohlrausch Effect

Hermann von Helmholtz and V. A. Kohlrausch

Saturated colors can appear brighter than equal-luminance gray.

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Chevreul Staircase — Uniform gray steps appear shaded along their borders.

Chevreul Staircase

Michel Eugène Chevreul

Uniform gray steps appear shaded along their borders.

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Escher’s Belvedere: people occupy a pavilion whose columns connect incompatible upper and lower levels.

Belvedere

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898 - 1972), Dutch graphic artist.

You should experience a sense of perceptual confusion as you note the paradoxical nature of the building and other features in the lithographic print.

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A person crouches beside a colourful pavement painting that appears to open into a deep landscape.

Pandora

Tracy Lee Stum, an American artist

You should have the visual experience of a man riding a mythical bird. However, although the man is real, the bird is just a cleverly constructed 2D drawing on the pavement.

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A pavement painting of a swimming pool with a person sitting at its edge, seen from the illusion’s convincing viewpoint.

Swimming Pool in the High Street

Julian Beever (1959 –), a British sidewalk chalk artist

You should have the visual experience of a man seeming to climb down into a 3D swimming pool. However, although the man is real, the swimming pool is just a cleverly constructed 2D drawing…

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A pavement painting of a waterfall and deep chasm, with a person positioned inside its apparent space.

Waterfall Street Painting

Manfred Stader, a German street artist

You should have the visual experience of a person seeming to crouch on a rock on top of a waterfall. However, although the person is real, the waterfall is just a cleverly constructed 2D…

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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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A black-and-white photograph of a woman holding her hands around her eyes and mouth, used in a positive afterimage demonstration.

Positive Afterimages

Origin not specified in the source article

When your eyes are closed and covered again, you should continue to experience the view through the window, or the lamp, or the computer screen, which will likely fade away quickly. This…

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An animated red-and-green ring with striped surfaces whose apparent depth can reverse.Moving image

Ambiguous Ring

Donald E. Simanek

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

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A black-and-white drawing of a woman at a dressing table; her reflection and the surrounding objects also form a skull.

All Is Vanity

Charles Allan Gilbert (1873 – 1929), American illustrator

You should experience a 'Gestalt switch' - a change - as your experience flips between being of a woman and being of a skull.

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Two equal horizontal bars between a pair of converging diagonal lines.

Ponzo illusion

Mario Ponzo

Perspective makes an equal line look longer.

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Impossible octagon — Eight sides make a deceptively convincing impossible loop.

Impossible octagon

Trilink at English Wikipedia

Eight sides make a deceptively convincing impossible loop.

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Impossible cube — A familiar cube frame acquires an impossible set of overlaps.

Impossible cube

M. C. Escher; modern redraw by 4C and Belbury

A familiar cube frame acquires an impossible set of overlaps.

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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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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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Ehrenstein Illusion — Bright disks emerge between the ends of separate dark lines.

Ehrenstein Illusion

Walter Ehrenstein

Bright disks emerge between the ends of separate dark lines.

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Historical engraving showing Robertson’s phantasmagoria, with lantern operators, an apparition and spectators in a dark theatrical setting.

Phantasmagoria — magic-lantern ghost shows

Étienne-Gaspard Robertson and other lantern showmen

Ghosts and skeletons appear in darkness, grow larger and seem to approach the audience. Hidden magic lanterns turn painted slides into an unsettling moving spectacle.

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Enlarged image from the selected gallery entry