Senior Library Books
Resource Key
LEVEL 1
brief, basic information laid out in an easy-to-read format. May use informal language. (Includes most news articles)
LEVEL 2
provides additional background information and further reading. Introduces some subject-specific language.
LEVEL 3
lengthy, detailed information. Frequently uses technical/subject-specific language. (Includes most analytical articles)
Introduction
"A paradox is not a conflict within reality. It is a conflict between reality and your feeling of what reality should be like."
– Richard Feynman
What is so compelling about riddles, mysteries, and puzzles? Most people are fascinated by images and objects that are paradoxical or impossible in real life but look oddly convincing and perplexing in 2D. For many centuries, artists have studied the nature of visual experience and how to convincingly render what they see. The results of these investigations can be found in numerous artworks in museums and galleries around the world. Works of art represent a rich source of ideas and understanding about how the world appears to us, and only relatively recently have scientists started to appreciate the many discoveries made by artists in this field.
Image Gallery
Britannica Links
- Trompe l’oeil (French: “deceive the eye”) in painting, the representation of an object with such verisimilitude as to deceive the viewer concerning the material reality of the object.
- Perception perception, in humans, the process whereby sensory stimulation is translated into organized experience. That experience, or percept, is the joint product of the stimulation and of the process itself.
- Illusion illusion, a misrepresentation of a “real” sensory stimulus—that is, an interpretation that contradicts objective “reality” as defined by general agreement.
- Chiaroscuro chiaroscuro, (from Italian: chiaro, “light”; scuro, “dark”) technique employed in the visual arts to represent light and shadow as they define three-dimensional objects.
Definitions
- Illusionnoun - something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality.
- Perceptionnoun - the act or faculty of perceiving, or apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind; cognition; understanding.
- Chiaroscuronoun - the distribution of light and shade in a picture.
- Manipulateverb - to manage or influence skillfully, especially in an unfair manner.
- Symbolismnoun - the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character.