The Theatre of Illusions

Eli Whitney Museum

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2012 Summer Program

Please note: This is a 4 day week. We will not have a class Wednesday, July 4th.

Pictures don't lie (usually). But perhaps your brain does. It can see things that are not there. Or not see things that are. Artists know this. Scientists know this. Construct a whole theatre of optical illusions to understand how colors, proportions, and shapes can fool us. Construct a praxinoscope whose mirrors will make your drawings move. Construct a curious room whose angles will make your wooden figures change size as you watch. Recreate the artist Marcel Dubhamp's experiments with spinning images. Learn classic tricks and create your own. Then, learn that these are not tricks, but windows through which we can watch the brain at work.

Special thanks: Dr. Marvin Chun, Visual Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Yale University.


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