February 14, 2014

Its Loves Illusions I Recall

Gianni Sarcone's illusions are beautiful and evocative of our most cherished emotion.

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

Title: ‘E-motion’, by Gianni A. Sarcone

Gianni Sarcone has been a frequent contestant in the Best Illusion of the Year Contest, and also in our previous article on illusions of love. But he is hands down the most prolific illusion lover—or love illusioner—in the world. What can I say? He’s Italian.

His illusions are beautiful and evocative of our most cherished emotion.

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So to celebrate Valentine’s Day, we Illusion Chasers are celebrating his lovely creations. Here are a few below from his new gallery of kinoptical illusions. Kinoptic illusions are static images that appear to move due to processes in the brain.

>>> SEE OUR LATEST SPECIAL ISSUE WITH MORE LOVE ILLUSIONS HERE

>>>READ ABOUT OUR LOVE LIVES HERE

Description from our Special Issue: The yellow fields inside the heart seem paler than the fields forming the contour of the heart, which appear to be a darker shade of yellow-orange. Right? Wrong. Actually all the yellow fields in the figure are identical. Any differences that you see are all in your mind. This effect is called neon color spreading because it resembles the effect of the light spreading from a neon lamp. The neural underpinnings of this effect are not yet understood.

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