If you’re looking at a computer screen or a piece of paper optical illusions can be mesmerizing. They’re an interesting demonstration of how our brain processes information from our senses to create a sense of reality.
Lines that stretch and buckle forms that pop out and color variations – all of these are aspects of optical illusions. Humans are constantly detecting the light, color and distance.
What is an optical illusion?
An optical illusion occurs in the event that an image confuses eye and brain. In one-tenth of a second, the visual system transmits thousands of images to your brain. The brain organizes the data by defining boundaries by analyzing contrasted areas or colors, and guessing, based on past experiences, what it is supposed to be seeing.
Sometimes, things go wrong. The optical illusions don’t represent caused by a malfunction in the brain or eyes They are simply an uneasy relationship between the two on what’s visible. Similar illusions are experienced through other senses. For instance, if see a crawling insect on your arm, it might appear to be going down.
Three types of optical illusions are available three types of optical illusions: literal, physiological and cognitive. The physiological illusions are those that appear to be moving but are actually still images. These are caused by over stimulation of the brain’s sensory system as they attempt to discern the motion of a photo that isn’t moving. These illusions can include the Ponzo Illusion where two lines seem to have different lengths.
The use of optical illusions in advertising – visual illusions
Optic illusions are utilized in the classrooms of psychology, museums as well as by your hippie pal who has posters hanging on his walls. However, you probably didn’t think they could be employed in advertisements. They can be extremely efficient in grabbing people’s attention and creating a sense of motion, or in certain cases, crinkly eyes.
Jane Pain, a popular lingerie company, recently launched an optical illusion campaign that features busts and bums on their products. If you examine them closely but you’ll find that the parts of your body not wearing lingerie are actually elbows and knees.
A Kit Kat truck is another cool optical illusion used in ads. It creates the illusion like the driver is sitting in a hammock, instead of being driven. This optical illusion is a fantastic technique to attract attention and also to entice them to take a break and indulge in a Kit Kat. It also uses the perceptual set and priming technique to establish a positive association to the brand.
Optic Illusions in Art
The MC Escher’s Penrose triangle and the never-ending staircase are well-known examples for optical illusions. Since the Renaissance optical effects have been an essential part of art. Artists made use of the camera obscura as well as linear perspective to create incredible trompe-l’oeil illusions.
Op art, which is usually geometric, is non-representational. It utilizes lines or shapes and blocks of colors to create the illusion of movement as well as hidden images or stretching or warping. The work of Victor Vasarely and the 1965 exhibit The Responsive Eye gave it a boost in popularity in the 1960s.
Joseph Albers, influenced by the Op Art movement experimented on how colors interacted and influenced one another. In his Homage to the Square paintings Albers overlays colored squares over one another in order to investigate the effect different hues have on our perception of depth and form.
Optical illusions in music
Musical illusions are one of the most advanced optical illusions to be seen. It’s an image layout of musical notes, all identical. When played back simultaneously on a piano, they create the illusion of lyrics to a song, when in fact there are no lyrics!
These clever illusions are a great illustration of how your brain processes the information from your senses and uses it to form an image of the world around you. It doesn’t matter if it happens naturally or through a deliberate process, our minds are incredibly strong.
Artists like Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely experimented with illusionary effect in their works. Soto went even further, making immersive art installations that blurred lines between artist and viewer, inviting them to interact with his art.