Have you seen this incredible Cafe Wall optical illusion?
Are the lines sloped? No, they are not.
The internet loves a good old mind-boggling optical illusion and the latest one to cause a stir on social media is an artist’s take on the famous Cafe Wall illusion.
The artwork by Victoria Skye features alternating black and light blue “bricks” which appear to be sloped.
Terrific optical illusion by Victoria Skye. @RichardWiseman @chriscfrench pic.twitter.com/IeSFupAcfU
— Martin S Taylor (@martinstaylor) August 7, 2017
But here’s the thing – the bricks aren’t sloped. They are parallel straight dividing lines and your eyes are actually deceiving you.
And of course, no-one can get their head around this.
if you squint, it straightens out.
— Matthew Landkammer (@m_landkammer) August 8, 2017
That’s insane. I had to measure the vertical spaces between the bars on each side to believe it. Please share brain fix when found.
— Joey ⚖ (@JaxJoey) August 8, 2017
This is crazy! I had to look at it vertically to see it’s true! https://t.co/aRuOZQ7Vta
— Patricia Hilbish 👀 (@KuuipoSays) August 8, 2017
If looking on phone, tilt phone and look down the image from the side to see parallels
— ck (@ckozielec) August 7, 2017
Literal gasp here, when tilting the phone to the side! Thanks for the suggestion. Irrationally angry with my brain for lying to me like this
— Chris Davies (@suchChrisDavies) August 7, 2017
The Cafe Wall was made famous by British psychologist Richard Gregory in 1973 – inspired by a tiled wall of a cafe in Bristol.
“The illusion works because the light and dark contrasting edges interact in opposite directions along the straight edge, therefore tricking the brain into thinking there is a slant in the line,” Skye explained.
“If you blur the image, or look at it from the side at eye level, the effect disappears because you cannot resolve the tiny white-black interactions once they are blurred, so the brain is no longer tricked.”
Skye, who is a professional magician and illusion artist, created her artwork using Photoshop.
“I have hundreds of variations that I have created by way of experimentation with shapes, colours and by using the influence of other illusions or illusion artists before me,” she said.
Thanks for checking out my Illusion. I created it and it still fools me. https://t.co/SOvQsupIw2
— Victoria Skye (@victoria1skye) August 8, 2017
“This particular one is a combination of variations used by a brilliant illusion creator named Akiyoshi Kitaoka and the Cafe Wall made famous by Richard Gregory.
“Other versions of this effect were later discovered and in my version I have summed two very strong versions of this effect to heighten the illusion even more.”
To see more examples of Skye’s incredible illusion art, check out her work here.
The Press Association
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