Why are we so fascinated by illusion art? The answer comes from visual imagery and perception within the field of Psychology. Since our mind processes the environment and objects that we perceive, the brain has to do a bit of work to make sense of what we view with our eyes.
Processes such as Mental Rotation are conducted within our brain to help us translate the things that we perceive into objects that make sense. For example, a concave face shape at one angle appears to be very obviously concave but in the right lighting, with the right contrast and different viewing angles, we perceive the face to be 3D instead of concave.
Artists have long taken advantage of this tricks that are often referred to as “illusions”. The mobius strip, a figure that appears to be a band that consists of a one-sided surface that bends around itself with only one boundary, was discovered by German mathematicians August Ferdinand Mobius and Johann Benedict Listing in 1858. Since then, the mobius strip or mobius band, has been featured in numerous art sculptures, paintings and other forms. The twisted loop shape is even a frequently tattooed piece of art because people are so very drawn to the mind-bending shape that appears to be unorientable.
A simple search for illusion art on Youtube or Google will bring a large number of results such as using line curves to create art that appears to jump right out of your notebook. It’s my belief that as humans, we are curious about the things we do not understand and when we view these types of illusion arts, we are fascinated with the way our mind so easily deceives our eyes. Someone who studies Psychology, however, would know that it’s not our eyes that are falling prey to this visual trickery, but rather the mental processes within our brains.
Imagery and perception are not only closely related but there is a partial overlap between the two mechanisms. While visual perception involves bottom-up (assembled) processing and imagery involves top-down (pre-assembled), both of these mechanisms can be provoked simultaneously with illusion art which results in the fascinating “eye tricks” we perceive in some of the images shown here. Since both perception and imagery are considered to be spatial, sculptures and 3D art that are illusion-based can be an incredible experience to the viewer.
Some art installations can be large in scale, causing an immersive experience unlike any other. Fun-house mirrors, escape room art and sidewalk chalk arts are other forms which use illusion techniques to toy with the spatial processing in our mind, in order to create art experiences which amaze us. Since our brain must work to process these images or objects and uses things that we already know to be true about our environment and the physics of certain objects, one viewer may have a different interpretation or experience than another viewer – leaving the art form to be even more fascinating through discussions about what the artist was hoping to convey. Though artists may not be well-versed in many aspects of Psychology and may be unaware of the science behind visual imagery and perception, they certain use the outcomes of these processes to their advantage to create unique and entertaining art pieces.
What amazes me the most about this type of art is that most people with “normal” vision and brain function are immune to ignoring the effects of the art illusions. Those who are color-blind or have suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) certainly fit the group of people who might not be able to view the art with much appreciation if they’re unable to process things the way the art was intended, but for the majority of people – it’s impossible to look at the art and not see that the illusion is taking place. It’s weird and awesome at the same time to think that our brain is so easily fooled by what we think we see. Isn’t it?
Works Cited:
Goldstein, B. E. (2017). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience (4th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. Retrieved April 12, 2018
Wikipedia. (2018, April 11). Mobius Strip. Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Möbius_strip