Monday July 27, 2009
Is the old optical illusion making it’s way back into our lives? I have been looking into the workings of optical illusions lately and I have noticed that just as I did this they started to pop up everywhere. I find the application of these techniques in a commercial context to be amazing.
Most recently I came across the latest issue of Dazed & Confused that features a cover and fashion shoot that uses anaglyph technique. Anaglyphs are 3D images that use cyan and red separations and a pair of glasses with corresponding lenses to create the illusion of depth. It is more complicated that that, but if you really want to you can read about it here.
The latest Animal Collective release featured an ‘anamolous motion illusion’ (basically it’s a static image that looks like it is actually moving). The artist Akiyoshi Kitaoka is a professor of psychology from Japan, check his site here, it is absolutely amazing and he is wildly prolific.
I have even spotted the old stereogram (Magic Eye-style images) making an underground comeback. These are a bit trickier to pull off, with about half of the people in my office struggling when a Magic Eye book was bought in the other day. The simplicity needed for the depth masks kind of renders them a bit useless for hiding anything that needs more recognition than a vase or a whale, but they are so much fun and have retro appeal.
I think Trevor Jackson really nailed it with the Soulwax covers for ‘Any Minute Now’. They were brilliant and highly memorable. I haven’t found anything about how they were made and I don’t blame anyone who knows how to do this for not wanting to tell. (Smaller dots?)
Whatever the case, I think these old school techniques are so much fun and definitely have eye-catching appeal, bringing back an interactivity to the art of static print that was kind of lost in the last decade or so to the internet.
Words by Jimmy
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