Sexy Silhouette Optical Illusion

I love good silhouettes. They are almost always ambiguous. When dealing with a silhouette the subject can be looking toward you or away from you and the lines can be drawn in to show either perspective.

Which way is this lovely girl actually facing?

P2 - Beach 3
Flickr Artist: ZaksterNT

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Shadows in the Mist

Again I take you into the Etc... of Optical Illusions Etc... Not everything in this blog is an optical illusion, some of it is frightenly real.

On August 11, 1999 a mysterious black mass swarmed across the surface of the planet. This might be biological in nature if it wasn't for the fact that it moved at almost 2000 kilometers per hour. Could this be extraterrestrial in nature? Is this phenomenon proof that we are being visited from other worlds?


Credit: Mir 27 Crew; Copyright: CNES
source

Explanation: Here is what the Earth looks like during a solar eclipse. The shadow of the Moon can be seen darkening part of Earth. This shadow moved across the Earth at nearly 2000 kilometers per hour. Only observers near the center of the dark circle see a total solar eclipse - others see a partial eclipse where only part of the Sun appears blocked by the Moon. This spectacular picture of the 1999 August 11 solar eclipse was one of the last ever taken from the Mir space station. The two bright spots that appear on the upper left are possibly Jupiter and Saturn, although this has yet to be proven. Mir was deorbited in a controlled re-entry in 2001

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Erotic Silhouette Optical Illusion

This came to my attention via Kisrael.com. I know what some of you might be saying, I said the same thing when I first saw it. "How the heck does this classify itself as an optical illusion? For that answer you'll have to read the full article.

(c) Nobuyuki Kayahara 2003
Ambiguous Rotation

This is very much like the Ferris Wheel optical illusion I posted previously, depending on how you look at her she will either be spinning clockwise or counter-clockwise. You don't believe that it is possible for your mind to see this image rotating any way but the way you see it now, do you?

One of the reasons that this is possible is that it is a silhouette and the very nature of a silhouette is ambiguous.

Try looking at the reflection and see if she reverses direction. I shift my focus to the side and can tell in my peripheral vision that she has changed direction, I then move my eyes back on the silhouette and walla she is rotating in the other direction.

What is even more amazing is that if you see her spinning clockwise then it is her right leg and arm that is up in the air, but if you see her spinning counter-clockwise then it is her left leg and arm that are up in the air.

My initial view of this illusion is that she is rotating counter-clockwise, but once I manage to see her spinning the opposite way it is hard to switch back. Which way does she appear to spin to you? Can you see her spin in either direction?

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Shadow Illusions

Here is a series of shadow illusions by Tim Noble and Sue Webster. A 2003 press release describes them thusly,

Tim Noble and Sue Webster. Partners in both life and art, Tim Noble (1966) and Sue Webster (1967) explore the toxic influences of consumer culture through new modes of portraiture. Turning garbage into complex and visually arresting sculptural installations, Noble and Webster exploit, manipulate and transform base materials, often using self-portraiture to undermine the “celebrated” authorship of the artist.

Tim Noble and Sue Webster
Dirty White Trash [With Gulls] ©1998
Six months' worth of the artists' rubbish



Tim Noble and Sue Webster
Real Life is Rubbish, ©2002

Joe La Placa of Artnet had the following to say about the next two installations,

"Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s aptly titled exhibition, “Modern Art is Dead,” is an irreverent version of a shadowy Plato's Cave. Riding on the wake of their successful solo exhibition at P.S.1 in New York, the naughty couple continue to astound audiences with their transgressive alchemy of light, shadow -- and scraps of steel!

In the bawdily titled The Crack, we enter a dark room where an assemblage of welded steel scraps stands in the middle of the gallery like a lonely Giacometti figure.

A light source in front of the sculpture casts a halo of light -- and a crack-like shadow -- against the wall behind it.


Tim Noble and Sue Webster
The Crack ©2004
(installation view)
Modern Art, London

Initially confounding (most tend to see the shadow as a positive space) we realize that the shadow is the negative space between two standing nude figures facing each other -- self-portraits by Noble and Webster.

The main work in the show, HE/SHE, is far more explicit -- there's no hiding in the shadowy crevices.

Two modernist-looking steel sculptures produce distinct silhouettes of the artists -- taking a piss! Could this be the artist’s commentary on modernism, a metaphorical marking of art turf?


Tim Noble and Sue Webster
HE/SHE ©2003
(installation view)
Modern Art, London

I loved the skill needed to create these fascinating shadow self-portraits. They obviously are very passionate about their art. But they don't just do shadow illusions here is a word illusion very much like the one in this post.

Tim Noble and Sue Webster
" " ©2003

I'll let you fill in the title of this piece.

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The Lady's Silhouette

Below is a silhouette of a lady. The question I have is which direction is she facing? Is she facing toward you or away from you? When we don't have all of the visual details our mind often fills in what is not there.

Antonio Zamora
copyright 2004
used w/permission

Did your mind fill in the details for her to be facing you or for her to be facing away from you? The truth is from the silhouette above it is impossible to tell, either answer could be accurate. See the below two penciled in silhouettes to see why.

Antonio Zamora
copyright 2004
used w/permission

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