MetaFilter posts tagged with illusion

Masters of Illusion: The Great Management Consultancy Swindle

Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:15:34 -0800

"The most important of the all-too-human functions of consultants is to sanctify and communicate opinion. Like ministers of information, consultants condense the message, smooth out the dissonances, unify the rhetoric, and then repeat and amplify it ad nauseam through the client's rank and file. The chief message to be communicated is that you will be expected to work much harder than you ever have before and your chances of losing your job are infinitely greater than you ever imagined."

If you've ever known a management consultant, this explains why they always seem to have that "outrageously unjustified level of self-confidence." A fascinating insider's look into the anthropology of business consulting -- Masters of Illusion: The Great Management Consultancy Swindle

Escape from the Zombie Food Court

idixon — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:36:52 -0800

The American Hologram We suffer under a mass national hallucination. Americans, regardless of income or social position, now live in a culture entirely perceived inside a self-referential media hologram of a nation and world that does not exist. Our national reality is staged and held together by media, chiefly movie and television images. We live in a “theater state.”

Movement

lazaruslong — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:23:42 -0800

Jean Baptiste André - Movement and Illusion. My favorite. One more.

Go figure

mediareport — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:17:38 -0800

Andreas Aronsson makes interesting impossible figures, documents the process, and philosophizes. Via lines and colors and Neatorama, where Aronsson shows up to call himself "an Oscar Reutersvärd ripoff." Reutersvärd is often credited as the founder of the impossible figure. Click the images at Aronsson's site to get a "full size" option.

The Body Swap Illusion

homunculus — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:18:25 -0800

If I Were You: Perceptual Illusion of Body Swapping. Expanding on previous experiments, researchers discover how to induce a "body-swap" illusion, whereby subjects perceive the body of another as if it were their own.

Kinetic Illusions in Op Art

homunculus — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:45:20 -0800

Art as Visual Research: Art and neuroscience combine in creating fascinating examples of illusory motion.

Lacking Control Increases Magical Thinking

homunculus — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:20:22 -0800

Of Jock Straps and Conspiracy Theories. A new study looks at how lacking control increases the tendency for magical thinking and illusory pattern perception. [Via]

Things that are not what they seem

not_on_display — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:34:06 -0800

The Mighty Optical Illusions website contains a ton of things to mess with your visual cortex, from 3D chalk drawings to impossible objects; spot-the-object games, tests, and the just plain spooky, among many other categories. Or you can just keep hitting the Random Illusion button until you lose yourself.

"Illusion, Michael. A trick is something a whore does for money... or candy!"

bunnytricks — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:47:20 -0800

The Magic Hour: The Roy Sterling Story.

omg, it's made of food!

taz — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:06:41 -0800

Surreal photographic Foodscapes by photographer Carl Warner. Strawberry hot air balloons, towers of cheese, potato boulders, green pea boats on seas of salmon, spice roads, and sugar beaches populate these intricate and luscious scenes. More dishy foodscapes (the plate rainbow = ♥!) and other wonderful visual tricks at his Flash site in the "Fotographics" section (look for the fabulous forest of boots and the white cotton winter wonderland!). Note that the Foodscapes and other illusions are in the second section at his site (the orange box), which contains four folders. Flash. gah. I also found a bit about the process at The Thinking Blog. Via presurfer, via neatorama. And other places... but too good not to link here.

Audible Illusions

sambosambo — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:34:26 -0800

Holophonic sound is an audio recording technique which operates on a principle similar to Holography. The result has been reported to be realistic and life-like three dimensional sounding audio recordings. You'll need your headphones to get the most out of the three audio demonstrations provided here. Close your eyes, and it's quite an effective illusion.

Atom

empath — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 12:41:22 -0800

Atom. -- The Clash of the Titans -- The Key to the Cosmos -- The Illusion of Reality

See For Yourself - Optical Illusions

nthdegx — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 03:32:33 -0800

See For Yourself - Purves Lab's optical illusions web page with empirical explanations of familiar and unfamiliar illusions.

Silhouette pirouette

painquale — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:00:07 -0800

Is the dancer spinning clockwise or counterclockwise? An optical illusion. Ignore the right brain/left brain gobblydegook.

Video Ergo Sum

homunculus — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:31:50 -0800

Virtual Out-of-Body Experience. Using two procedures to deliberately scramble a person's visual and tactile senses, neuroscientists are able to induce "out-of-body" experiences in people. The effect is the same as the 'rubber hand illusion', but extends the effect to the whole body instead of just one limb (you can try the hand illusion for yourself).

Won't get not-fooled again

maudlin — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:41:30 -0800

Garbage + illumination = art? Various artists carefully pile rubbish on a gallery floor, or meticulously assemble a collection of ordinary items, plug in a light source, and create incredibly detailed and surprising shadows on the wall. Meanwhile, blog commenters cry "Fake!" and "Photoshop!". I guess they didn't see any of the Quicktime movies of Shigeo Fukuda linked here.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures

MetaMonkey — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 19:59:18 -0800

"Illusion is the first of all pleasures "

Trippy optical illusion

brain_drain — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 13:31:22 -0800

Your daily dose of perception-bending. Stare at the center of this video (wmv or flash) for a minute or two then look away from the screen at your surroundings. You'll experience an interesting and somewhat disconcerting effect. Not appropriate for anyone prone to headaches or seizures.

2D => 3D

MetaMonkey — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 16:38:57 -0800

Carnegie Mellon researchers have created a program that can automatically generate a 3-D model from a single photograph, using machine learning. Take a look at this high-res comparison of original and generated images, also demonstration animations and downloadable videos (with executables). [via /. see also: a little on human 3d perception at everything2, groovy dragon illusion]

Sometimes higher is lower

ozomatli — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 09:30:17 -0800

An audio illusion called the tritone paradox is based on Shepard Tones, a finite self-similar sequence of tones that seem to contiually rise or fall in pitch. Diana Deutch has found that how you percieve these illusions can be strikingly different from person to person and that most people have some form of pefect pitch.

The Death of Perspective

empath — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 05:38:40 -0800

The Death of Perspective. Among the greatest achievements of the renaissance artists was the perfection of the art of perspective: Giving the appearance of depth to a flat surface. Felice Varini uses perspective to do the opposite.

Mr Angry & Mrs Calm

smackfu — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 09:48:16 -0800

Mr Angry & Mrs Calm. This illusion will BLOW YOUR MIND.

Some odd art links -

ember — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 18:23:57 -0800

hand paintings by Guido Daniele that apparently are not photoshopped; 3D sidewalk art using clever long-distance perspective; and some cool art samples created by hand or mouth, from paralyzed folks of The Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists.

Masters of Deception

hortense — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 22:43:52 -0800

Masters of Deception "There are a number of incredible artistic works featured in Masters of Deception, which require movement to appreciate their full impact. Additionally, I had in my possession various interviews with some of the book's featured artists that I wanted to share with my readership. Unfortunately, the publisher was unwilling to produce a CD to accompany the book. I have created this web site, therefore, to augment and enhance the reader's experience by presenting those works and interviews that I could not present in book form." Al Seckel. enjoy.

The Summer Moon Illusion

digaman — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 19:32:20 -0800

For the sake of your sanity, for five minutes this week forget the memos, the autopsies, the celebrity verdicts, and the rest. Go outside and look at the full moon, which will hang in the sky at its lowest point in 18 years over the next three nights, says NASA, creating the "summer moon illusion." If you're a US resident, calculate your local moonrise time here.