FAT’s “Rubin Vase” Reveals Twin Portaits

The design team that calls itself FAT (Fashion Architecture Taste) isn’t the first one to take the old “face vase” optical illusion seriously, but it may be the first one that attempts to create actual portraits in the thin air surrounding pottery. “Heroes of the Invisible” forms the faces of designer Mies van der Rohe and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi. Those two were chosen for being two figures who explored the idea of the invisible in very different ways. original “Rubin’s vase” (sometimes known as the Rubin face or the Figure-ground vase) is a famous set of cognitive optical illusions developed around 1915 by the Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin. The illusion generally presents the viewer with a mental choice of two interpretations, each of which is valid. Often, the viewer sees only one of them, and only realizes the second, valid, interpretation after some time or prompting. When they attempt to simultaneously see the second and first interpretations, they suddenly cannot see the first interpretation anymore, and no matter how they try, they simply cannot encompass both interpretations simultaneously– one occludes the other.


27 Replies to “FAT’s “Rubin Vase” Reveals Twin Portaits”

  1. lol… i was totally freaked when i realised what i wasd looking at. i love it when that happens!!! nice illusion btw!

  2. How can you not get it?
    It’s a vase or its two faces looking at each other. Oldest illusion in the book.

    I dunno why they say “When they attempt to simultaneously see the second and first interpretations, they suddenly cannot see the first interpretation anymore, and no matter how they try”. That’s a load of crap, anyone can swap between the vase and faces at will.

  3. In 1977 British Sculptor Judy Cousins invented/created “the Royal Silhouette” vase – commissioned by Kaiser Porcelain for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. It portrays the silhouette of Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip. A limited edition was produced, and one given as a gift to the Queen.

    This ‘Royal Silhouette’ vase has been portrayed in the National Geographic “Illusions” book and in countless other places. Therefore the FAT Design Team were certainly not the first to create the illusion of two profiles.

    [img]http://s3.amazonaws.com/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-11-02/AqxcsrzFtIHBeiGBAFlBFFGuqGHcddgbBjFmGjwajcJDsIvnqBqeEHEenCGd/The_Royal_Silhouette_Vase_by_Judy_Cousins.jpg.scaled1000.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJFZAE65UYRT34AOQ&Expires=1320417448&Signature=Ca%2FDdjH9PbgwPUr0L%2BHxZLuJ%2BPQ%3D[/img]

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