Illusions Come To Life . . . With Legos

In the first week of Sensation and Perception, we had a discussion board assignment to go out and find our favorite illusion to post for everyone to see. I have always loved the never-ending staircase illusion since I was on the Willy Wonka website as a kid and I saw nerds (the candy) continuously jumping up stairs that connected in a circle. Since my first encounter with the illusion I have seen it many different way but none so intricate and beautifully illustrated as M.C. Escher was able to create (http://www.mcescher.com). When I was looking for Escher’s picture to post, I came across something rather unusual:

This is a Lego model of Escher’s picture, monks on the stairs and all. I was so intrigued that I read through the website by a man named Andrew Lipson (http://www.andrewlipson.com/escher/ascending.html). A self proclaimed professional nerd, Lipson has used Legos to build various things including five of Escher’s illusions. Along with showing us a real life interpretation of the illusions, Lipson also shows how each illusion works by showing the illusions from different angles and showing them as a whole.

I find it incredibly interesting to find out how illusions might be able to work in the real world, so I though it would be worth sharing.

~Post by Amber Kolaga~