Optical Illusions

NOTE: My notes on modernity, modernism, post-modernism, etc are
      on the pages:  -[Post-post-modernism]-  
                     -[Post-911 Era]-

See also:  [Negative Space]
           [Art Theory]
           [Art Concepts]
           [Modernism]  [Post Modernism]
           [Art THINGS] (sort of a catch-all)
           [Film]
           [Art Materials]
           [Art Technique]

Optical Illusions

The Top Hat Illusion

An importnat point is that we also see those
lines which we are used to seeing. It has been
recently that people who live most of their 
lives in the plains (eg, deserts, mesas) see
the objects differently and the top hat illusion
for them simply doesn't exist. They see it as
equal in height and width. 



This also goes back to the illusion that the 
Moon near the horizon looks larger - simply 
because we judge it to be farther away and 
our eyes "force the perspective" and make 
it look larger than over head. 


Source: Ruch and Zumbardo, 276-280.

  Ruch, Floyd and Zimbardo (1971). Psychology of and
        Life (8th edition). Glenville, Illinois: 
        Scott-Foresman.

The oddest (or not) thing is that the whole idea of
an optical illusion was so new (in 1967-71) that
Ruch and Zimbardo (that crazy Hep Cat and Hippy)
didn't even list OPTICAL ILLUSION in index, and
they are treated under "illusion" as a part of
perception:

   Perception,
     ...
     Iluusion, 276.

In fact at this point the whole "twinkling of
the stars" wasn't even seen as an illusion. 
Although, the "moon size" illusion was. 


Forced Perspective

Actually, this is just how we are trained to 
see things. We see train tracks (see below) 
and we see two parallel lines going off into
the distance. But, in reality we are shown:

           / \

which are two slanted lines. So, we "learn
to see thins as we expect them to be:


   /\
   /\
   /\
   ||

   pine tree?


      /  \
     /    \
    /      \


(the road ahead? - see the self-symbols for the
Honda, Accura, and Infiniti for a // - parallel).
See also: -[Trade Marks]-












The "railroad track" illusion:




Removing the "optical clues"
\