Deceiving the eye and frying the brain

Wouldn’t it be great to buy a house that looks like a wardrobe but is infinitely spacious? Doctor Who’s Tardis has delighted several generations with this concept, but the closest we have ever come is with optical illusions. The most famous example of an optical illusion trick is the “Ames Room” designed by ophthalmologist Adelbert Ames Jr. The room is constructed in a trapezoidal shape which, when viewed from the front, alters perspective so that a person standing in one corner of the room looks much smaller than someone standing in the other. Walk into the room and the trick is undone. MC Escher, Convex and Concave (Lithograph), 1955 MC Escher, Convex and Concave (Lithograph), 1955 Creating optical illusions in buildings has also been around for a long time; although it isn’t always about making things seem bigger or smaller. It was probably the ancient Greeks who started the trend when they subtly altered some of the pillars and floor heights in the construction of the Parthenon to ensure it looked perfect from all angles. Artists have also been fascinated with illusions. M.C. Escher’s never-ending staircases of the 1960s, and Roy Lichtenstein’s 1996 “House” illusion play with optical illusions, but “trompe-l’œil” (literally translated as “trick of the eye”) murals and paintings have been around for centuries. Hans Holbein’s The Ambassadors (1533) features a stretched and distorted skull which can only be viewed properly by standing to the very side of the painting. There are some pretty amazing examples of illusion on the facades of contemporary buildings. One rather spectacular example was the “melting building” in Paris. This was a mural, created on canvas, to cover the building renovations going on behind it. The idea became a clever way of transforming something that is usually considered an eyesore in to something engaging for the Parisian community. The truth is, we can’t always believe our eyes and fooling them can be fun!