During my holidays in Spain in 2008 I found a nice optical illusion on one of the Barcelona’s houses. The head is concave, but with this lighting it looks like it is convex. Greetings from Calgary – Jacenty

This is how one would imagine mother nature would express her sentiments about our inability to reduce global warming. It seemed an obvious place for her to appear, on a retreating ice shelf, crying.”

Why are they laughing? I would be terrified if some predator jumped on my vehicle!

You’ll have to agree with me on this one; from a certain angle it really looks as if the visitors are about to become lunch. This illusory installation is one of the main attractions at Werribee open range zoo near Melbourne, Australia. Spokesmen of the zoo said once:

The cut-off Land Rover was stuck either side of the glass wall as a bit of fun and it’s proved a big hit – especially with the kids. Everyone wants to get their picture taken looking like they’re going to be eaten.”

Back in the eighties, Rousse started out as an ordinary laboratory photographer, but then moved on and began taking photographs of vacant car parks, empty roads and condemned buildings.

After a while an idea hit him, so he started painting figures of people on walls of these buildings, and then photographed these. Later on, he switched from figures to illusory shapes. Soon he grew tired of all this, and began superimposing photographs on spaces, realities on other realities.

I find Rousse’s combination of photography and illusions, combined with installation art somewhat confusing – perhaps annoying even. It’s impossible to really know what you are seeing ,ever! I’m not sure I would enjoy any of his works hanging from my walls…

Take the above photo for example. At first glance it looks as if one is looking at the scene through a circular filter. A closer look reveals that the shapes in the circle appear to be entirely separated from their background, as if an unrelated photograph has been superimposed on the area behind.

Nothing in the “normal” part of the area lines up with a single part in the white photo. I don’t know about you, but I feel cheated by this kind of artifice. My eyes want the circular part to fit into the main picture so much, but it just won’t! You may find more of Rousse’s work below:

While we’re in the Moon illusion atmosphere (or even better – lack of it), Xavier Kreiss sent me another related one. This is what Xavier wrote: “It’s been a long time since I last contacted you! Your blog is as fascinating as it always was. This evening I was looking at some French blog, when I saw this photo of a plane going behind the moon. Of course, the illusion is due to the fact that the vapor trail, which is white, can’t be seen when it goes past the moon, which is also white – so you get the impression that the vapor is behind it. I thought it might amuse you!”

Could this plane really have passed behind the Moon?

Cloudface in Details

You would be surprised how often do I get different types of cloud formations submitted, to be posted on this site as optical illusions. Most of the time (almost ALL OF THE TIME) the illusion is not obvious, and would take closing both eyes on them to decide publishing those photos. But there are some rare times when those cloud formations really DO resemble something. One of such examples is Kawodi’s recent submission. Just read what he wrote to us, and examine both of his two attached photos.

” Hi, Mr. Vurdlak, Just look what I’ve found. The shot was done nearby where I live, but I guess, with open eyes you’ll find it everywhere across the world. A pleasure for me, that I can submit this for your fantastic site.”

This year, the final-year students of Beckmans College of Design have created an art installation at the Stockholm furniture fair. The students have created a space where they wish to inspire informal gatherings of people, in the same way as you would meet spontaneously about town – sitting at the edge of a monument, on a front porch or a flight of stairs. The furniture in the showcase is based on an individual briefs, to create a specific type of furniture. In contrast to what is usually the case in the fair, where many prototypes are for view only, students have encouraged the visitors to interact with the furniture and the space. You can view this exhibit from different angles, by clicking on the gallery thumbnails below. Enjoy!

Here are some more photos from this art installation:

For today I have prepared two simple optical illusions that can easily be seen in mother nature. You can logically conclude that neither of them was photoshopped, but its interesting how the fluid’s density influences the angle under which the light reflects. This stuff is learned in the physics class in your elementary school, so be sure to pay attention when your teacher starts with “optics” chapter.

For today, enjoy this relaxing photo of a Polar Bear lying in the sun. It was submitted by a person whose name I forgot, but still it is a very nice illusion! I can’t believe how this snow formation resembles to such a realistic Polar Bear. Have to go now, will keep you informed about the site migration!