Colors are not as fixed as they seem. The red you see might not be the same red someone else perceives. Your brain constantly interprets colors based on their surroundings, which can lead to surprising illusions.
Take this experiment inspired by the Munker-White effect: all the gray bars in the striped patterns are actually the same shade. Yet, next to blue lines, they appear bluish; beside mixed colors, they seem to shift tones. This is known as color assimilation—where a color takes on the influence of its neighbors.
The same illusion explains simultaneous brightness contrast. In the wine-pouring examples below, the liquid seems to change color in the glass. But actually, the red remains unchanged.
Here’s a simple animated variant of my project: Hard to believe, but the flow of wine stays the same shade of red all the way—from the bottle’s neck, through the pour, and even inside the glass. It’s only your perception that changes!
Even more striking—when cyan lines replace black ones, the liquid pouring from the bottle is actually gray from start to finish, yet it appears to turn into red wine in the glass. In reality, the red is just an illusion—your brain fills in the missing color where none exists.
🔴 See it for yourself! Fine art prints of my color experiments are available here:
👉 https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/166097393
⚠ Copyright Notice: My artworks are protected. Any use must include proper credit and a link to the original source. Commercial use is strictly prohibited.
