Do you see a girl stuck in concrete or hiding behind a wall
July 5, 2021 2:36 AM Subscribe
Girl Stuck In Concrete Illusion
Better than being stuck in an abstract illusion. At least with this one she knows where she stands.
posted by chavenet at 3:12 AM on July 5, 2021 [56 favorites]
Better than being stuck in an abstract illusion. At least with this one she knows where she stands.
posted by chavenet at 3:12 AM on July 5, 2021 [56 favorites]
Yeah, it’s not really an illusion, but “poor resolution photo slightly confusing at first glance” makes for a much less catchy headline. I admit to being moderately amused.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:26 AM on July 5, 2021 [19 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:26 AM on July 5, 2021 [19 favorites]
Is this one of 27 perfectly timed photos?
posted by snofoam at 3:34 AM on July 5, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by snofoam at 3:34 AM on July 5, 2021 [8 favorites]
The internet's latest obsession
Wow, 40+ retweets. Hold on to your hats.
posted by qntm at 4:02 AM on July 5, 2021 [17 favorites]
Wow, 40+ retweets. Hold on to your hats.
posted by qntm at 4:02 AM on July 5, 2021 [17 favorites]
I like to call this the “MetaFilter is grouchy today” paradox.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:07 AM on July 5, 2021 [49 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:07 AM on July 5, 2021 [49 favorites]
Or maybe the internet doesnt have to get in a tizzy over every weird picture. This isn't like the dress where people literally saw something different. This is just your standard optical illusion.
And I think the grouchy part is someone trying to make it an "obsession" when its not.
posted by LizBoBiz at 4:13 AM on July 5, 2021 [11 favorites]
And I think the grouchy part is someone trying to make it an "obsession" when its not.
posted by LizBoBiz at 4:13 AM on July 5, 2021 [11 favorites]
Is there a more aggravating website than KnowYourMeme?
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:19 AM on July 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:19 AM on July 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
This was on r/confusing_perspective a while back, one of the better ones, I thought.
posted by Bee'sWing at 4:42 AM on July 5, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Bee'sWing at 4:42 AM on July 5, 2021 [4 favorites]
How can anyone see the grey band as concrete?
I thought it might be water or a sheet of plastic, although those ideas were both instantly discarded, but concrete?
posted by Jane the Brown at 4:55 AM on July 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
I thought it might be water or a sheet of plastic, although those ideas were both instantly discarded, but concrete?
posted by Jane the Brown at 4:55 AM on July 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
This isn't like the dress where people literally saw something different. This is just your standard optical illusion.
And since dresses usually come in a variety of colors, each interpretation was equally plausible no mater how much we disagreed over it.
Here we're being asked to either accept that the girl is stuck in concrete almost up to her armpits and sufficiently chill about it while waiting for a rescue to be using her cell phone while someone takes her picture, OR she's just standing behind a wall. (Spoiler: She's standing behind a wall)
It's a neat illusion, but the only possible way this image could be something to obsess over is if it subverts our expectations and she's actually stuck in concrete and it only looks like she's standing behind a wall.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:00 AM on July 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
And since dresses usually come in a variety of colors, each interpretation was equally plausible no mater how much we disagreed over it.
Here we're being asked to either accept that the girl is stuck in concrete almost up to her armpits and sufficiently chill about it while waiting for a rescue to be using her cell phone while someone takes her picture, OR she's just standing behind a wall. (Spoiler: She's standing behind a wall)
It's a neat illusion, but the only possible way this image could be something to obsess over is if it subverts our expectations and she's actually stuck in concrete and it only looks like she's standing behind a wall.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:00 AM on July 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
A: “Funny ha-ha or funny peculiar?”
B: “There’s nothing funny about a ha-ha; you could break an ankle.”
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:00 AM on July 5, 2021 [29 favorites]
B: “There’s nothing funny about a ha-ha; you could break an ankle.”
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:00 AM on July 5, 2021 [29 favorites]
In 2021 even our meme illusions are underwhelming
posted by dis_integration at 5:19 AM on July 5, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by dis_integration at 5:19 AM on July 5, 2021 [6 favorites]
If we want meme illusions I prefer this one
posted by phunniemee at 5:24 AM on July 5, 2021 [22 favorites]
posted by phunniemee at 5:24 AM on July 5, 2021 [22 favorites]
Yes, it's simply caused by the angle of the shot, and is easy to figure out once you mentally rotate everything 90 degrees so that the "back" of the picture becomes the "top" instead. Then you can plainly see that the "sidewalk" is actually a wall, the "girl" is a tree branch, and her "shadow" is a raccoon. The "grass" in the foreground is the photographer's thumb, and the "shrubs" in the background are the rotting teeth of Ncothlu, daughter of Cthulhu by the all-devouring Kassogtha. The "photographer" is the blind idiot god Azathoth, who rules all time and space from a black throne at the centre of Chaos, and if you listen closely as you look at the picture you can hear the thin, monotonous piping of an unseen flute. Iä! Iä!
posted by kyrademon at 5:34 AM on July 5, 2021 [50 favorites]
posted by kyrademon at 5:34 AM on July 5, 2021 [50 favorites]
Schroedinger's great-granddaughter.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:47 AM on July 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:47 AM on July 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
The internet discovers the ha-ha
I must be a hipster, then, 'cause I visited Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! before it was cool?
posted by eviemath at 6:02 AM on July 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
I must be a hipster, then, 'cause I visited Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! before it was cool?
posted by eviemath at 6:02 AM on July 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
I see that our eyes no longer work because we stare at screens all day
posted by eustatic at 6:02 AM on July 5, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by eustatic at 6:02 AM on July 5, 2021 [2 favorites]
Apparently the world today is so depressing that even mild amusement must be met with eyerolls and derision. Oh well.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 6:08 AM on July 5, 2021 [16 favorites]
posted by Pyrogenesis at 6:08 AM on July 5, 2021 [16 favorites]
People are not saying “this is not amusing,” they are saying “this is misframed.” This is not a photo that people are going to argue over (like the blue-black/white-gold dress) or have to try to “figure out,” it’s just a funny perspective illusion.
posted by argybarg at 6:16 AM on July 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by argybarg at 6:16 AM on July 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
It reminds ma a bit of the ‘two pigeons looking for their car’ gif perspective illusion. I would link but the hyperlink tag is not cooperating on mobile.
posted by skye.dancer at 6:50 AM on July 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by skye.dancer at 6:50 AM on July 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
I came in expecting Dark Academia. Where is the Dark Academia?
This picture is quite fetch tho.
posted by glonous keming at 7:00 AM on July 5, 2021 [4 favorites]
This picture is quite fetch tho.
posted by glonous keming at 7:00 AM on July 5, 2021 [4 favorites]
FWIW, I can’t see the wall perspective at all. Somebody dig this poor child out!
posted by epj at 7:15 AM on July 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by epj at 7:15 AM on July 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
I miss big stuck boat.
posted by oulipian at 7:35 AM on July 5, 2021 [18 favorites]
posted by oulipian at 7:35 AM on July 5, 2021 [18 favorites]
I see a man in an oversized comic bow tie and bermuda shorts, flossing his teeth while standing on one foot, and behind him, the Vienna Boys Choir, all dressed in electric hot pink tutus and scuba masks. All of them in a Walmart parking lot. The Walmart is on fire. Don’t tell me you don’t see that too.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:43 AM on July 5, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:43 AM on July 5, 2021 [7 favorites]
All of you looking at the girl, the wall, and the sidewalk missed the gorilla, I bet.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:58 AM on July 5, 2021 [29 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:58 AM on July 5, 2021 [29 favorites]
(I liked it! And it fooled me! And I had not seen it before! Thanks Pyrogenesis.)
posted by AgentRocket at 8:01 AM on July 5, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by AgentRocket at 8:01 AM on July 5, 2021 [2 favorites]
Not seeing what the fuss is all about. Kitty Pryde has been an X-Men character for forty years or so.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:12 AM on July 5, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:12 AM on July 5, 2021 [4 favorites]
I know, logically, that the person is not trapped in the flagstones. But I can't see the wall at all, no matter how hard I try. I am amused by the illusion.
I love the one linked above as well. I can easily see it now, but the first time it crossed my desktop I could not see the fourth arm for quite awhile.
Going back to puzzling about the kid in the ha-ha now.
posted by Orlop at 9:02 AM on July 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
I love the one linked above as well. I can easily see it now, but the first time it crossed my desktop I could not see the fourth arm for quite awhile.
Going back to puzzling about the kid in the ha-ha now.
posted by Orlop at 9:02 AM on July 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
Where is the fourth arm?!? Halp!!!
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 9:48 AM on July 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 9:48 AM on July 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
Fun. The grey features on the front of her top really help sell the illusion.
posted by eotvos at 10:10 AM on July 5, 2021
posted by eotvos at 10:10 AM on July 5, 2021
Where is the fourth arm?!? Halp!!!
I had to expand the image before I could see it, but it's a (very effective) camo sleeve ending in a blue glove, coming directly horizontally from the left of the image.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:21 AM on July 5, 2021 [8 favorites]
I had to expand the image before I could see it, but it's a (very effective) camo sleeve ending in a blue glove, coming directly horizontally from the left of the image.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:21 AM on July 5, 2021 [8 favorites]
Metafilter: Is there a more aggravating website than KnowYourMeme?
posted by howfar at 11:00 AM on July 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by howfar at 11:00 AM on July 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
So if you think your life is complete confusion
Because a ha-ha hurt your brain
Just remember that it's a crap illusion
And deep inside we're all the same
posted by kirkaracha at 11:12 AM on July 5, 2021
Because a ha-ha hurt your brain
Just remember that it's a crap illusion
And deep inside we're all the same
posted by kirkaracha at 11:12 AM on July 5, 2021
People are being awfully chill about watching a child fall into a time/space vortex.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:56 AM on July 5, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:56 AM on July 5, 2021 [4 favorites]
Or out of...
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:57 AM on July 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:57 AM on July 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
Ohhh! Thanks, Greg_Ace!
More illusions, please. These are fun.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 12:11 PM on July 5, 2021 [2 favorites]
More illusions, please. These are fun.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 12:11 PM on July 5, 2021 [2 favorites]
The one time a camo garment has actually worked.
posted by GuyZero at 12:17 PM on July 5, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by GuyZero at 12:17 PM on July 5, 2021 [8 favorites]
More illusions, please. These are fun.
Top posts of all time at r/confusing_perspective (including this one).
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:26 PM on July 5, 2021 [2 favorites]
Top posts of all time at r/confusing_perspective (including this one).
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:26 PM on July 5, 2021 [2 favorites]
I like this! And I'm surprised the Wikipedia article for "ha-ha" only lists two examples of (financially significant) personal injuries.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 1:45 PM on July 5, 2021
posted by mixedmetaphors at 1:45 PM on July 5, 2021
I mean, having been living within this current space-time continuum for the last five years or so, I'm just happy for the kid to have found a way out.
posted by biogeo at 2:07 PM on July 5, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 2:07 PM on July 5, 2021 [4 favorites]
Looks to me like the wall is pink gray and the street is yellow gray.
posted by iamkimiam at 2:08 PM on July 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by iamkimiam at 2:08 PM on July 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
The nice thing about 1. having frequent audio/visual processing weirdnesses and 2. indulging in a lot of SFF is that seeing someone being casual about phase shifting is nothing when lined up against making the choice between "stuck" and "hiding". (( Pfft. She's clearly not hiding, says I, to myself. Therefore, obviously stuck.))
As for the thread, I suppose the conversation about the 4th camo arm could be about that other linked photo but I'm going to continue to believe it's more of what people just aren't seeing in the girl-slipping-through-the-path photo and I need to look harder.
posted by to wound the autumnal city at 2:37 PM on July 5, 2021
As for the thread, I suppose the conversation about the 4th camo arm could be about that other linked photo but I'm going to continue to believe it's more of what people just aren't seeing in the girl-slipping-through-the-path photo and I need to look harder.
posted by to wound the autumnal city at 2:37 PM on July 5, 2021
Using knowledge gained from looking at a pair of crocs in a marijuana growing poly-tunnel, researchers constructed another image that repeats the 'that dress' phenomenon.
Or 'How a divisive photograph of a perceptually ambiguous dress led two researchers to build the nuclear bomb of cognitive science out of socks and Crocs'.
posted by asok at 2:51 PM on July 5, 2021
Or 'How a divisive photograph of a perceptually ambiguous dress led two researchers to build the nuclear bomb of cognitive science out of socks and Crocs'.
posted by asok at 2:51 PM on July 5, 2021
Somebody please buy the dress, crocs and socks. Wear them all at once and take pictures. It’s like perfect fashion horror illusion.
posted by iamkimiam at 3:04 PM on July 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by iamkimiam at 3:04 PM on July 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
I keep looking for the concrete, but all I can see are flagstones. Is that the illusion?
posted by meinvt at 4:57 PM on July 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by meinvt at 4:57 PM on July 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
Look for the larger, more square-patterned grey bricks or stones forming the top of the thick wall in front of the girl, compared to the diagonal cobblestone pattern of the street behind her.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:29 PM on July 5, 2021
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:29 PM on July 5, 2021
To create the image, Wallisch and Karlovich started with an object that looks pink under white light (a pair of “Ballerina Pink Classic Crocs”) and instead illuminated it with green light, equalizing its appearance to gray. Then, they made the background pitch-black, removing any contextual color cues that the visual system might utilizeexcept they totally didn't. The dark background has a totally obvious green cast as well, so the picture is unambiguously white socks, pink crocs and lousy white balance. Is there honestly anybody who has ever taken a bad photo on a cheap phone in poor lighting and fails to see that immediately?
posted by flabdablet at 12:57 AM on July 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
I enjoyed this. I was able to see the image in peripheral vision, open on the laptop display while I was looking at the main display. The article says there's a McCollough Effect, sort of interesting.
posted by theora55 at 10:20 AM on July 6, 2021
posted by theora55 at 10:20 AM on July 6, 2021
I could only get glimpses of it by quickly scrolling the page up and down. Is it a panda?
posted by flabdablet at 10:47 AM on July 6, 2021
posted by flabdablet at 10:47 AM on July 6, 2021
I enjoyed this. I was able to see the image in peripheral vision
Oh that's easy, it's clearly a zebra!!
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:11 AM on July 6, 2021
Oh that's easy, it's clearly a zebra!!
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:11 AM on July 6, 2021
Being less silly...I was able to manage a sort of 3-D "Magic Eye" effect where stripes with the diagonal lines in one direction hovered over a background with the diagonal lines in the other direction. But even though I tried until my eyes started to hurt, I wasn't able to see an animal in it.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:16 AM on July 6, 2021
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:16 AM on July 6, 2021
Opening the image in a photo editor and applying enough Gaussian blur to wash out the zigzag stripes reveals a very low-contrast image that is indeed a panda.
posted by flabdablet at 12:58 PM on July 6, 2021
posted by flabdablet at 12:58 PM on July 6, 2021
Thanks for posting this, I had not seen it and was entertained for the er... entirely too long period it took me to see what was going on.
posted by rpfields at 8:40 PM on July 6, 2021
posted by rpfields at 8:40 PM on July 6, 2021
I had heard about the ha-ha, but for some reason when I saw it today all I could think about was Tartuffe the Spry Wonder Dog.
posted by ob1quixote at 7:54 PM on July 7, 2021
posted by ob1quixote at 7:54 PM on July 7, 2021
The one time a camo garment has actually worked.
That you know of.
Though this one hath its charms.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:59 PM on July 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
That you know of.
Though this one hath its charms.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:59 PM on July 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
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This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
Also, why would a girl be so chill about being splinched like that? Clearly that's not it.
Maybe I'm just not in the mood for the internet on this Monday morning.
posted by wakannai at 2:49 AM on July 5, 2021 [24 favorites]