Optical Illusions Etc...
Feed Button
Description Presented here is a vast gallery of many different forms of Optical Illusions. Whether these optical illusions are conveyed through fractals, photographs, architecture, art, or old fashioned pen and ink, they are bound to remind you that "seeing is not believing."

Caution!!!! Some of the optical illusions on this blog may cause dizziness or possibly epileptic seizures. The latter happens when the brain can't handle the conflicting information from your two eyes. If you start feeling unwell when using this website, immediately cover one eye with your hand and then leave the page. Do not close your eyes because that can make the attack worse.
Fractal of the Day Fractal of the Day
Provided By Sprott's Fractal Gallery

Thursday

Paradoxical Pavilion Optical Illusion

I featured this previously as the Student Union Optical Illusion. At the time I had no idea who had created this illusion. Since then I discovered that this illusion was created by Walter Wick for his book Optical Tricks.

Who is Walter Wick? You can check out his biography here. However if you have kids I'll bet you may already own a book or two that he has photographed or illustrated. That is if you have any of the I Spy series of books. It turns out I was a big fan of Walter Wick's work and didn't even know it. Click this link for Walter Wick's books @ Amazon.com

Long story short, I contacted Mr. Wick and asked permission to use this photo here on my blog. He was very gracious and has granted me permission to show this image here.

Going Up optical illusion

"Going Up?"
©Walter Wick, 1998
from Optical Tricks
Used w/permission


Mr. Wick took it one step further though and has allowed me to publish below exactly how he managed to create this optical illusion.

Like many optical illusions created to be photographed this one only looks complete when shot from one specific angle.

Anyone can digitally manipulate an image but few have the creative mind and patience needed to stage such an illusion. You can read Walter's comments on this illusion here.

Going Up optical illusion Revealed

"Going Up?" Revealed
©Walter Wick, 1998
from Optical Tricks
Used w/permission

Thank you Mr. Wick for your generosity in allowing me to post this here and as a parent I want to thank you for many hours of enjoyable time with my children trying to find all of the items in your I Spy books.







3 comments:

Anonymous said...

While the composition does look right, it's the shadows that tell the truth, and kinda break this illusion.

Walt said...

Good observation, if you go to Walter Wick's page he points out the exact same thing.

Anonymous said...

I think the shadows just add to the mysterious effect. I have the book this picture is from and I spent a long time trying to puzzle out how it worked. This is a great picture, one of my favourites from that book. Well done.



Copyright Notice
The documents distributed here have been presented on this blog in the spirit of providing an entertaining venue to educate those interested in optical illusions.

All Flckr.com photos are presented here via Flckr's "blog this" feature. This feature is enabled by each artist on Flckr. If you find material here that belongs to you and you would like to have it removed or credited please contact me and I will gladly follow your wishes.

Copyright and all rights therein are maintained by the authors or by other copyright holders. It is understood that all persons copying this information will adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. These works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.