The article looks at optical illusions and human vision, as of 2013. It outlines how visual images are composed in the brain and describes how recent mathematical models of neural activity help to explain how optical illusions work. It cites examples of optical illusions such as many works by Dutch artist Maurits Escher and a drawing by cartoonist Ely William Hill that can appear either like a young woman or an old woman.

The article discusses how the brain interprets visual paradoxes. Visual paradoxes create conflict between sensory information and intellect by presenting multiple concepts that cannot co-exist. Artists such as William Hogarth and M.C. Escher have created visual paradoxes in their work. The authors discuss a three-dimensional representation of the Penrose triangle, a visual paradox created by scientists Lionel and Roger Penrose.

Most artists would be livid if six of the seven works that they had loaned to an exhibition returned damaged, but not Eric Conklin. He was flattered. Conklin, 58, practices a type of still life painting known as trompe l’oeil—French for “deceives the eye.” Conklin strives to do just that with his paintings, to persuade people that they are looking at genuine coins, chalkboards, photographs and other carefully chosen objects. This article explores the origins of trompe l'oeil and a number of it's well-known artists.

PARADOXES—in which the same information may lead to two contradictory conclusions—give us pleasure and torment at the same time. They are a source of endless fascination and frustration, whether they involve philosophy (consider Russell's paradox, "This statement is false"), science—or perception. The Nobel Prize winner Peter Meda war once said that such puzzles have the same effect on a scientist or philosopher as the smell of burning rubber on an engineer: they create an irresistible urge to find the cause. As neuroscientists who study perception, we feel compelled to study the nature of visual paradoxes.

The paradoxes that have been studied by philosophers and logicians are arguments that lead from plausible premises to impossible conclusions. For example, in the Liar Paradox, the assumption that "This statement is false" is either true or false leads to the conclusion that it is both true and false. Depictions of so-called “impossible objects” in the late works of M.C . Escher are visually paradoxical. There are deep similarities between visual and logico-semantic paradoxes. In the case of the visual paradoxes, knowledge of various means of representing distance enables us to explain how the paradoxical effect is achieved. A novel approach to solving the Liar and other logico-semantic paradoxes consists of coming to understand how the impossibility of their conclusions arises by means analogous to those by which visually impossible objects are produced.

The author discusses definitions of visual perception demonstrated by his painting and drawing. He refers to the motivations, painting theories, and other influences on his artwork that result from his definitions of visual perception.

Focuses on the art exhibition "Trompe L'Oeil: The Art of Illusion" to be held in the U.S. in 2005. Techniques used by several painters in creating highly realistic and illusionistic works of art; Characteristics of trompe l'oeil paintings; Artists to be featured in the exhibition.

Discusses trompe l'oeil painting. Structures using trompe l'oeil painting; History; Techniques.