Stare at the square in the middle of the design below.  Does it appear to be unstable and moving or hovering over the background? This illusion is a variation of the Ouchi Illusion and was designed by French artist Daniel PICON.

The Mona Lisa was painted by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci in the early 1500’s.  Since that time, it has become one of the most famous and recognized works of art in the world.  It is hard to imagine that da Vinci would have foreseen the following incarnation of his painting by Akiyoshi Kitaoka, but […]

As you look down this tunnel designed by optical artist Kaia Nao, does it appear to be moving?  Does the back of the tunnel seem to be moving toward you? This image is completely static and not animated in any way.  It might seem hard to believe, but it is true!

The heart pattern below, designed by optical artist Anh Pham, appears to move before your very eyes.  If you enjoy Anh’s motion illusions, you may want to revisit his moving arrows illusion that was featured last month.

Does it look like the red portion of this animation is rotating clockwise and the blue portion is rotating counter-clockwise?  The blue part is actually stationary, only the red part is moving. This effect was described by Peter van der Helm in an abstract in 2006 and was a Top 10 finalist in the 2007 […]

The Lilac Chaser is a visual illusion that consists of multiple optical effects – similar to the choice between a galaxy watch vs active 2.  If you stare directly at the plus symbol (+) in the center of the image, you will notice that the purple discs will slowly disappear.  You should also notice that […]

Akiyoshi Kitaoka is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan.  He is well known for his work developing and trying to understand anomalous motion illusions.  His most famous work is Rotating Snakes where a series of circular snakes appear to rotate spontaneously.  Upon releasing this work to the public […]