Perception

Mephistopheles and Margaretta, a double statue

Gianni Sarcone

The “Salar Jung Museum” is an art museum located at Dar-ul-Shifa, on the southern bank of the Musi River in the city of Hyderabad, Telangana, India. In this museum is exhibited a captivating double-figure wood sculpture built in the 19th century A.D. in France. It stands before a mirror and shows the facade of a nonchalant Mephistopheles and the image of a demure Margaretta in the mirror.

The wooden double statue of ‘Mephistopheles and Margaretta’ representing evil and good are characters from Goethe’s famous work ‘Dr.Faust’ (1808) and tells the story of love, heroism and tragedy.

double statue Mephistophele Margareta Continue Reading →

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.

Here’s a trickier version: with the black grid in place, the large green square appears uniform. Take the grid away, and it turns into a full-on checkerboard…

shade contrast 2

This occurs because in our visual system there is a mechanism that enhances the contrast of the outline of an object relative to its background: it is called ‘lateral inhibition’. Thus, even small differences in brightness between adjacent zones or objects are deliberately increased by the brain to better distinguish them. So, when the brightness boundaries of the color zones are concealed, the cues the brain needs to trigger the lateral inhibition mechanism no longer exist and consequently we become “blind” to variations in color brightness. The illustrations above have been taken from my book “Drawing Optical Illusions” who was translated in many languages. The book is still available from Amazon.

Drawing optical illusions

This eye-catching, colorful book is designed to inspire those artists interested in optical illusions and as an invaluable reference tool for people who to wish to create them. In clear, easy steps, this book shows people how to design a range of original and classic optical illusions and even how to create their own personalized illusions.

Optical Illusions, An Eye-Popping Extravaganza of Visual Tricks

Gianni Sarcone

“Reality is merely an illusion,
albeit a very persistent one.”
— Albert Einstein

Everything you “see” depends strongly on the context and attention you give to it. The mind and the world you experience are inseparable, as it is your 3-pound brain that make the world meaningful. Seeing isn’t some kind of direct perception of reality. Actually, our bairns are cnostanlty itnerperting, correcting, and giving srtuctrue to the viusal ipnut form our eeys. If this were not the case, you would not see any colors (consider that all the beautiful colors you see don’t really exist), and you would probably see the world upside-down! Moreover, you would notice in your visual field a very large dot, called the “blind spot,” where the optical nerve enters the eye.

A Zen master said once: “If you pour water into a cup, water becomes the cup; if you fill a bottle with water, it becomes the bottle!” Likewise, the context shapes the appearance of the world surrounding you. Your brains work by comparing information and stimuli: contrasting colors, shapes, depth in a dynamic changing environment … that’s why perception is relative and not absolute. Continue Reading →

KINECHROMATICS: A new three-framed animation

Gianni Sarcone

Kinechromatics (patent pending) is a method of my invention for animating static images through retinal persistence and controlled interactions between additive and subtractive color systems. It produces apparent motion by sequential color filtering across layered chromatic structures, rather than relying on conventional frame-by-frame animation.

Kinechromatics static image

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

What happens if we alternately overlay this image with transparent colored acetate sheets, each carrying an additive primary color (red, green, and blue)?

Kinechromatics red

Kinechromatics: red filter
When viewed through a red acetate sheet, the magenta and yellow components are largely absorbed, while the cyan layer remains visible, appearing black.

Kinechromatics green

Kinechromatics: green filter
Through a green acetate sheet, the cyan and yellow components are suppressed, revealing the magenta layer in black.

Kinechromatics blue

Kinechromatics: blue filter
Through a blue acetate sheet, the magenta and cyan components are reduced, allowing the yellow layer to emerge but appear black due to its lack of transmission in the blue range.

The animated GIF below produces a continuous motion effect using only four elements: a static base image and three full-color layers blended in multiply mode.

Kinechromatics animation

Colored light can also replace acetate filters, creating a seamless optical animation. Stroboscopic illumination in primary colors has the added effect of merging perceptually into white light, making the transitions visually smooth. This approach can be particularly effective in museum or gallery installations, offering a direct demonstration of how color interaction is processed by human vision. The setup consists of a static image containing the Kinechromatics pattern, illuminated sequentially by red, green, and blue projection, as shown in the animation below.

For inquiries about exhibition or collaboration, feel free to contact me.

projector

A second example, a simple animated dancing skeleton, demonstrates the same principle:

dancing skeleton

 

See also:

• Kinegrams

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 →

Dynamic Müller-Lyer Illusion

Gianni Sarcone
Prize illusion sarcone

I am very proud that my “Dynamic Müller-Lyer Illusion” won the third prize as best illusion of the year 2017!

As you surely know, the “BEST ILLUSION OF THE YEAR CONTEST” is a yearly competition under the patronage of Scientific American, organized by the Neural Correlate Company (New York, USA).

Müller-Lyer’s illusion proves that a segment can visually appear longer or shorter depending on the sense of the arrow heads at its ends. In what consists my variant? As shown in the animation, the red dot in the middle of the line is equidistant from the other two red dots, although the ends of the line visually appear to alternately stretch and shrink like a rubber band!

The radial version of the illusion is even more impressive:

The perceptual increasing and decreasing of the segments occurs in a very short time. Thus, I suppose it is more a physiological phenomenon, rather than a psychological bias. Our attention seems to be attracted by the receptive field WITHIN the V-shaped arrow heads, causing an illusory inward or outward shift of the ends of the line.

Continue Reading →

THE FIRST GREATEST ILLUSION

Gianni Sarcone

The very first illusion is to believe that there is one, unique world of perception. The mind and the world we experience are inseparable, as it is the mind that makes the world meaningful. Our mind IS our world. Despite the fact that our mental construct of what is perceived is distinct from the objective reality, our mind accepts it as real.

Every organism, man as well as animal, lives in its own subjective spatiotemporal world that semiotic philosophers call ‘Umwelt’ (from the German Umwelt, ‘surrounding world’, or ‘life-world’). According to the biologist Jakob J. von Uexküll, organisms and their life-world shape each other in a functional loop (see fig. below): interactions between the subject and the outer world, mediated through the sense and effect organs, determine the world framework of the subject. Thus, a particular stimulus which has a perceptive cue or meaning to the subject induces always a purposeful reaction.

feedback loop of information

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 →