These pieces by Shelley James (UK) use moiré interference patterns to create illusions of depth and movement, playing with the physiology of the visual pathways and the mechanisms that build and test our perceptual map of the world.
As the viewer moves around Penrose Pattern & Figure-ground, each simple structure-four panes of glass printed with parallel and angled lines in black and in white- becomes apparent. Seen from the side, the panels are fragile and insubstantial. Yet as the angle of view changes, they suddenly appear as solid screens over which rhythmic patterns appear to run in different directions and on different planes. While the arrangement of lines is exactly the same on the black and on the white panels, the effects when seen from the light and the dark sides are strikingly different. This can be seen with the naked eye, and yet the illusion persists, exposing the usually unconscious dialogue between the body and the brain.
Moiré Matrix: Hybrid Form combines the magnifying qualities of glass and the graphic precision of print to set up a conflict between these signals, creating a paradoxical space where the relationship between front and back, near and far is constantly switching.
LLUSION: NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS
11.07.13--29.09.13 at Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin.
Find out more at www.sciencegallery.com/illusion