Illusions and Optical effects repositories
I've been interested in optical illusions for quite a while now and one of the first posts on this substack was about how Illusions and Optical Effects are made so imagine my surprise when I discovered that there is a The Best Illusion of the Year Contest with a $3.000 main prize.
Illusions and optical effects
Mind errors and imagination Mind is a fantastic thing. It needs constant input to work. Absence of any sensation; audio, visual, touch, taste, and smell can produce insanity. Also, an overload of the same can produce the same result. This issue of the newsletter will try to sum up the most common reasons and applications of visual information that can be interpreted…
The contest is managed by The Neural Correlate Society which is a “nonprofit organization that promotes scientific research into the neural correlates of perception and cognition”. They describe themselves as a “community of perception scientists, ophthalmologists, neurologists, and artists who use various methods to help discover the underpinnings of illusory perception”. The site is a collection of the Top 10 from each year’s contest.
With this discovery, I went on to see what else I could find and found something really interesting.
In 2015 a Museum of Illusions was opened in Zagreb, Croatia. I visited it soon after as it’s only an hour away. What I did not know is that since then the founders have taken the concept to the global level. With “35 locations around the world, including Toronto, New York, Dubai, Chicago, Athens, Vienna, Paris, Madrid and Istanbul. It has become the largest chain of private museums in the world” with 24 museums in North America alone. So if you have a chance, check it out.
As for YouTube, there is a Grand Illusions channel. Since 2008, Tim Rowett has weekly showcased his collection of toys, puzzles, and illusions and has since then amassed a significant following and a collection of over 1,600 videos. There is an accompanying website that started in 1996 as a gathering place for sharing “various science-based phenomena, fun and games, and optical illusions”. Soon it morphed into a one-stop shop for all things regarding illusions and interesting toys.
Some other collections:
https://www.illusionsindex.org/illusions
https://www.archimedes-lab.org/Gallery/new_optical_illusions.html
https://www.giannisarcone.com/OpArt.html
https://www.giannisarcone.com/kinegram_gears2.html
