Curiosities

Is seeing believing? This book will prove the contrary

Gianni Sarcone
I really enjoy communicate the mysteries behind the science of perception in a simple and clear manner with the use of instructive images.

We live in a “reallusive” world… Illusions are not totally unreal, because we feel them as they were real. Reality is also a kind of ‘illusion’. The outside world is mediated through our sense organs: vision, hearing, taste, touch and smell. All what we perceive and feel are just REPRESENTATIONS of reality, not the reality itself.

Children have a different way of looking at the world. So, writing and illustrating optical illusion books for kids is not an easy task, because they are less fooled by visual illusions than adults. This is due to the fact that brain’s capacity to consider the CONTEXT of visual scenes, and not just focus on SINGLE PARTS of scenes, develops very slowly.

My new work “Optical Illusions” will make you question: “is seeing believing?”… The brain is an amazing thing, but it doesn’t always get things right when it comes to sight. My book is here to explain why, with astounding images, baffling puzzles, and simple reveals. Continue Reading →

PERCEPTION OF BRIGHTNESS

Gianni Sarcone

In the example below, in the left column, you can see two apples—one green, one red—appearing as a single solid color with a black cross over them. Now, if we remove the thick black lines, each apple clearly appears divided into four quarters of different shades—even though they are exactly the same in both columns, with and without the black cross.

Continue Reading →

Mondrian Meets… (My Tribute To Mondrian)

Gianni Sarcone

Here are two projects involving the geometrical-constructive art of Piet Mondrian, one of my preferred artists, the golden ratio and ϕ. For this purpose, I used the same color palette favored by Mondrian: yellow, red, blue, black and gray.

Mondrian meets Pythagoras and Fibonacci

In the first project, I used squares, that are proportional to each other by the golden ratio or ϕ, to prove the Pythagorean theorem as shown in the Zhoubi Suanjing (or Chou Pei Suan Ching – 周髀算經), one of the oldest Chinese mathematical texts (circa b.c. 200).

Zhoubi Suanking theorem Continue Reading →

KINECHROMATICS: A new three-framed animation

Gianni Sarcone

I would like to present a new way of my invention to animate static images with the interaction of additive and subtractive colors. I have called this new animation system KINECHROMATICS (patent pending).

The static image below is made of 3 layers having each a different subtractive primary color (magenta, yellow, or cyan) blended in ‘multiply mode’…Kinechromatics static image Continue Reading →

Frankenstein’s Dream: Hybrid Picture

Gianni Sarcone

Frankenstein Marylin

This intriguing image is taken from my book “Curiopticals“. Look at Frankenstein from a certain distance – approximately 2-3 meters, or 7-8 feet – and you will see what he is dreaming about. This type of illusion is known as a cryptic or hybrid optical illusion, and is produced by merging two subjects with different resolutions. The result is that one subject is hidden or suggested in the ‘host’ image. Continue Reading →

Breathing Hexagon

Gianni Sarcone

This is one of my earliest self-moving op art works (2003). Have a look at the static image above, don’t you have the feeling that the sets of lenticular shapes seem to expand?

This piece is accessible in various formats, including prints, posters, and t-shirts, through my art gallery shop.

Continue Reading →

Bidimensional Müller-Lyer Illusion

Gianni Sarcone

I am working on a new two-dimensional variant of the Müller-Lyer illusion… You may be surprised to know that the Müller-Lyer illusion isn’t only linear: it involves plane geometry too! In fig. A shown below, the ends of the blue and red collinear segments, arranged in a radial fashion around a central point, delimit two perfectly concentric circles. However, for most observers, they seem instead to define a large ovoid that circumscribes another one, slightly eccentric (Fig. B). This comes from the fact that the red segments seem to stretch towards the lower part of the figure, while the blue segments seem to stretch towards the upper part of the same. As you can see, in this variant comes also into play the “neon color spreading” effect. In fact, a bluish inner oval-like shape appears within the black arrow heads (Fig. A), though the background is uniformly white.
Müller-lyer oval

Continue Reading →

Man Can Never Be Clean

Gianni Sarcone
microbes

The human body plays host to trillions of microorganisms. So many, in fact, that they outnumber our cells 10 to 1! Fortunately many of these microbes are vital to human health.

Using a cell-culture dish filled with a nutrient broth commonly used in labs, Tasha Sturm, a microbiology tech at Cabrillo College in California, gently stamped her 8-year-old’s hand on the plate. She then incubated the petri dish at body temperature and 2 days later, the bacteria and yeast that were transferred to the dish had built a blooming colony (see featured photo above). Continue Reading →