"The House, that Swift Built"
(image credit: Anna Gunter)


(image credit: Josh Sommers)


(image credit: Josh Sommers)


(images credit: Istvan Orosz)

But did you know that some illusions can actually be constructed in real life?


(image credit: Shigeo Fukuda.html)

Aldo Cavini Benedetti made the working model of M. C. Escher's "Ascending and Descending" using a toy "Geomag" constructor set:


(image credit: Aldo Cavini Benedetti)

The video is almost out-of-this-world:



The "Impossible Triangle" is also possible to make, see the instructions here -



Almost real:


(image credit: Simon Scott)


Illusions in Art

One certain way to prompt the viewer to look twice in the picture is to create a "topsy-turvy" images, meaningful in both orientations.





Transformations! -


(image credit: Sandro del Prete)

Hidden figures:
A new meaning for "suggestive" painting -


(image credit: Sandro del Prete)


(image credit: Sandro del Prete)

This "Tree of Faces" is a classic:



Animal "matryoshka":



Mona Lisa:



This is a screenshot from the movie "Alexander". An interesting effect, but perhaps not that many people notice:



The following images are without credits, so please help us to locate the originals:











Impossible geometry

These artists can not revise the foundations of perspective and geometry, but they certainly fool the eye of a viewer:


(art by Dirk Huizer)


(image credit: Sandro del Prete)


(image credit: Sandro del Prete)


(image credit: Hermann Paulsen)


(art by Zenon Kulpa)


(image credit: Natalia Ivanova)

"The Magic Window" by Istvan Orosz




(images credit: Istvan Orosz)

Paintings by Flemish artist Jos de Mey continue in the "old Belgian masters" traditional style, only they clearly show impossible landscapes:










(images credit: Jos de Mey)

Other "impossible art" painters:


(image credit: Irvine Peacock)


(image credit: Irvine Peacock)


(image credit: Walter Wick)


(art by Igor Gluharev)


(image credit: Chris Miles)

Great "recursion" effect:


(image credit: Norman Parker)

Original creator of "impossible triangles" (1934) - Oscar Reutersvärd, Sweden.
Wrap your mind around this geometry:






(images credit: Oscar Reutersvärd)

Dmitry Rakov went even further, creating "impossible alphabet":



and "impossible labyrinth":



See another incredible figures alphabet on this page.

Here is one interesting puzzle:


(image credit: Gianni Sarconi)

If your kid has some trouble assembling the toy, maybe he's got instructions like this:


(image credit: Govert Shilling)

Snakes on a... thing:


(art by Peter Raedschelders)

Sometimes the confusing effect is all-too-easily achieved:





You can use money bills, or magazines:




(image credit: Meg Picard)

See more of this interesting effect here

Illusions in Advertising:





Not an optical illusion, but a good test of your "attention to detail":

How many "F"s are in this sentence?

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE-
SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIF-
IC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE
EXPERIENCE OF MANY YEARS

Scroll down for answer... in the meantime, see if you can spot anything wrong with this image:


(image credit: planetperplex)

ANSWER:
There are six F's in the sentence. There is no catch. Many people forget the F in "OF", and that word appears three times in the sentence. The human brain tends to see them as V's and not F's! If you spotted four, five, or even all six, well you beat the average!

Life imitates illusion

Do you remember M. C. Escher's "impossible staircases"?



well, somebody found the similar structure somewhere in Russia: