Smashing Color

with Maggie Maggio

Newsletter Feature of the Month: Optical Illusions

AlbersA1I copied and pasted this segment from the November newsletter I sent out yesterday.  Lots of fun links!  You can sign up for the newsletter on the right. Here’s a link to the November newsletter: Newsletter #2.

The classic Albers color interaction exercise above is included in one of the recent NPR stories. The X’s are the same color but appear to be different. This is just one of many ways to create optical effects that fool the eye. Some illusions involve color, some play with lines and forms, and all confuse the brain. I just spent four days exploring these phenomena with a few hardy polymer artist/guinea pigs in North Carolina. Crazy but fun!

Watch out! Here are some of my favorite optical illusion links:

For Kids: National Institute of Health
Michael Back: Hering Illusions and many others
Akiyoshi: Illusion Pages 
Recent: 21 Mind-Boggling Optical Illusions That Will Melt Your Brain

More on Josef Albers: Hirshhorn Collection

1 Comment

  1. Hi Maggie,
    I didn’t see where or how to sign up for your newsletter… I just signed up for Studio Mojo, and it, and your blog, say it’s on the right hand side… but I don’t see it…

    Hugs and love to you…
    Ann

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