Displayed in a BART station under San Francisco is a 3-D total-immersion optical illusion tunnel wrap of Utah’s Delicate Arch.

Watch as commuters experience the astonishing merging of a  glorious Utah desert panorama:  Delicate Arch  http://vimeo.com/struckinc/montgomerytunnel, as they walk between the anamorphic murals on both walls and floor and under successive slices of the Delicate Arch.

They’re dazzled! Grinning, gawking, pulling out cell phones, taking photos. ‘Wow, the floor! I almost have to be careful walking along, it looks so real.” “As you go underneath the beams looking up, you feel like you’re walking through the arch. Pretty clever!”

The installation, located at the Montgomery & Market Street transit station, is about 104 feet long. The concept was devised by the Struck creative agency to entice people to “see Utah from a fresh perspective!”

More smart marketing by Struck: At the best vantage point – where all surfaces re-assemble into the completed scene – there are images of Utah’s other parks and “QR” codes to click with your cell phone for additional information.

So what if you can’t afford standard art supplies! All mediums are huge these days! Draw with cast shadows!

Check out these ingenious art works.  Every example  makes me pump my fist, “Yeah!  That’s what I’m talking about!”  Use what you’ve got and don’t cry over what’s out of reach!  Artist Rashad Alakbarov created his “Crisis” shadow art using only a lamp and household items positioned by trial-and-error. And he fashioned this shadow head from plastic bottles the same way!

All Mediums are Huge These Days! will be a regular feature on my blog! My hope is that it may provide a bit of inspiration and motivation to encourage art teachers, parents and kids to explore, take little risks, and exercise their own ingenuity.

To me, in the current world economy, this message of genuine creative problem solving and empowerment is more urgent and more defensible than many other traditional,  time-worn art education lessons. So there!

This article, written by Amanda Coen, 03/22/12, as seen in ecouterre.com, is reproduced below in its entirety.

Yes, your eyes do deceive you. Greenpeace activists conspired with Planet Streetpainting artists to create a mind-bending optical illusion at the World Fashion Centre in Amsterdam on Tuesday. The occasion? The release of the environmental nonprofit’s third “Detox” campaign report—fittingly dubbed Dirty Laundry: Reloaded—which uncovers evidence that consumers of brands like G-Star,  Abercrombie & Fitch, and Calvin Klein, are unwittingly polluting the world’s public waterways with every load of …………………………………………………………………………. laundry.

Greenpeace researchers measured, for the first time, the percentage of hazardous chemicals that washed out from 14 clothing items during typical domestic laundering. Particularly of interest were nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs), a class of chemicals known as alkylphenols (APEs) that break down to form hormone-disrupting nonylphenols.

All 14 samples showed lower concentrations of NPEs after they were washed during typical domestic laundering.

All 14 samples showed markedly lower concentrations of NPEs after they were washed. The biggest offenders were H&M and Ralph Lauren, which tied at 94 percent for NPEs washed out, followed by Adidas (90 percent), Abercrombie & Fitch and Nike (tied at 88 percent), Calvin Klein (84 percent), and Converse (57 percent).

“This study suggests that all residues of NPEs within textile products will be washed out over their lifetime and that in many cases this will have occurred after just the first few washes,” the report reads. “These NPEs are then discharged to wastewater treatment plants, which do not effectively treat or prevent the release of these hazardous substances into the environment.”

Unlike polluted discharges from textile plants in China, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and the Philippines, the washing of finished garments can take place anywhere on the planet, including the United States, Canada, and the European Union, where legislation restricts the use of NPEs.

Greenpeace calls for lower limits on toxic substances both at the respective apparel brands and for product standards such as Oeko-Tex.

Greenpeace calls for lower limits on toxic substances both at the respective apparel brands and for product standards such as Oekto-Tex. The group admits, however, that such a step, taken in isolation, would not necessarily prevent emissions of APEs. “Suppliers could attempt to achieve a lower level of APEs in the final product by additional rinsing,” it says, “thereby increasing the discharge of these substances into rivers, lakes, and seas in the manufacturing countries.”

The solution, then, is for brands to eliminate the use of APEs throughout their supply chains. Six major clothing labels—Puma, Nike, Adidas, Li-Ning, H&M, and C&A—have pledged to develop and implement a roadmap towards zero discharge of hazardous chemicals. But here’s the rub: The roadmap does not include specific commitments or deadlines. Greenpeace wants the brands to eliminate at least the major uses (scouring, degreasing, and detergents) of APEs in their supply chains by the end of 2012, with the complete elimination of all uses by the end of 2013.

Consumers, who are unknowing accomplices in the cycle of pollution, can play their part, as well. Besides petitioning global brands to act responsibly, we can also lower the impact of our clothing by reducing consumption, repurposing existing items, and buying secondhand or vintage whenever possible. “A future free from toxic chemicals is possible,” Greenpeace says.”Together we can help create it.”

I love these clever visual illusion mind-blowers! I confess I keep playing the videos over and over and grinning at them every time!

Each uses the same trick – to make the box float or the eyes follow you -  the outside-in, concave version of a 3-D form.

Wondering if the phenomenon was first noticed when an artist or sculptor happened to glance back at the negative form from his or her positive casting.

The template here, provided by Rex Young, is a good way to try it out.

When I was a kid we called these delightful little Cracker Jack prizes flip-flop toys or wiggle pictures. A one-inch plastic square embossed with two different images. Tilt the square up then down and a secret message is revealed!  Enchanting stuff to an eight year old. Still enchanting this kid-at-heart today. And it seems I’m not alone.

Lenticular Graffiti has recently taken the concept to a grander scale. It uses slices of images applied to successive surfaces. Location is key to its success. Like other anamorphic art, the viewer must now occupy a specific vantage point to reconstitute the image.

“Think different.” Honoring Steve Jobs’ brilliant innovations, a lenticular graffiti artist has immortalized the CEO as a mature man when viewed from the left side and as a young entrepreneur when viewed from the right side.

Fore-Edge Painting does the same thing, on a much smaller scale – but you have to know where to look. Some old books contain this wonderful surprise! Because fore-edge paintings are hidden, anyone who does not know what they are looking for may miss them completely. You must take the pages and fan them out slightly, and if there is a fore-edge painting, it will appear.

To create a fore-edge painting, the pages of the book are fanned out minimally and the book is then clamped firmly in a vice. A water color painting is then applied. Once the painting is dry, the book may be released from the vice. It is also possible to create two quite separate fore-edge paintings within a single book by first fanning the pages one way and creating the first painting; then when that has dried, pages are fanned the other way, and a second, completely different, painting is applied.

Traces of the painting(s) would be visible on the edge of the book even if the book were flat, so to completely conceal the painting, the edge of the book can be gilded or marbled. Now the fore-edge painting is invisible until one fans out the pages. Books with secret gilded fore-edge painting were quite popular from the 17th century and into the 19th and 20th centuries.

Traditionally the fore-edge painting would be applied and then the gilt. But it is also possible to take a book that already has a gilt edge, and apply a fore-edge painting to it.

I’m seeing this as a very fun family project for holiday and vacation times. A great opportunity to treasure hunt for old volumes and for quiet, unplugged, fine motor play together. Want to try it?

I am getting my crowd funding pitch together (more about that later) or I’d be right on this fun project!

The latest sensation in interior design is trippy floor covering!
Every floor you’re seeing is 100% code flat! From the seismic shift carpet on the left, spotted in a Paris video game store, to the gentle waves in the new ballroom of the Marriott Solana in Southlake, Texas – it’s clever 2-D patterning that makes them look 3-D.  That’s what tricks the eye, messes with the mind, and challenges the balance. Don’t look down and you’ll be fine. (Let’s hope these businesses have good liability insurance!)

And if a garden meditation spot is a bit too serene for your taste, the other extreme is this backyard deck designed by Berkeley-based architect Thom Faulders – commissioned by Apple exec and art collector Jeff Dauber, who “wanted someone to barf when they look at it.”

These are definitely not recommended for Tai Chi studios or senior citizen housing!

Remember those Magic Eye pics in the ‘90s where you had to overpower your instinct to focus in order to see an image hidden in an overall pattern? Well, phew! “Fuyuu” Op Art is totally different.

Here you simply focus on the center spot in the image. Move your head towards the image and the inner ring appears to rotate counter-clockwise while the outer ring appears to rotate clockwise! Move your head away, and the direction of rotation is reversed! Curiously, the faster you zoom in or out, the faster the rings rotate! Mind blowing, isn’t it?!

“Fuyuu” (which means “waft” or “float” in Japanese) is the latest creation of Mathematical Vision Scientists Hitoshi Arai and Shinobu Arai. Their algorithm – based on their neural model of visual information processing in the brain – can transform any pictures into motion illusions. Click the images below to enlarge them.

The scientists Arai offer a respectful bow to their simple-pattern predecessors, also from the 1990’s: Ouchi illusion, Pinna illusion, Gurnsey-Morgan illusion, and Kitaoka’s illusions. I’ll be sharing some of these phenomena in a future post. Send your faves and I’ll share those, too.

Toshiko Horiuchi Macadam, one of Japan’s leading fiber artists, was exhibiting her crocheted Multiple Hammock #1  when two children entered the gallery and, blissfully unaware of the rules that govern the display of fine art, asked to sit in it. The artist watched nervously as the children climbed into the structure, but then was thrilled to find that the installation took on new life – swinging and stretching with the weight of the small bodies, forming pouches and other unexpected transformations. Above all were the sounds of utter delight as the children discovered their new play space. And the artist was led to create her CROCHETED PLAYGROUND in HAKONE SCULPTURE PARK, SAPPORO, JAPAN.  (Story credit: Playscapes)

“Children became part of her crocheted sculpture, activating it, stretching it, redefining it with their play. (Macadam’s) willingness to let kids touch and actually play with and on her sculpture marks her as an unusually open, and patently brave artist. Her ability to perceive how the children became part of her sculpture, completing it in ways she had never imagined, shows her mastery of the playful path.”  Bernie DeKoven, Major Fun

YARN BOMBERS, GUERRILLA CROCHETERS anonymous:   Are you an anonymous “bomber”?  Do you know how/where yarn bombing started?
Wondering, too,  is this something locals can safely add to neighborhood playgrounds?

Moiré effect optical illusion

A moiré effect optical illusion results from two static transparent patterns sliding across each other – like layers of shear nylon fabric. As the overlapped layers move independently, new patterns form. The GIF on the left shows how superimposed parallel lines create the optical illusion effect of bands compressing and expanding. Using the moiré effect John Leung cleverly printed a glass coffee table with a parallel line interference pattern and a rug with offset fish

Video Credit: Caitlin Stier, video intern at New Scientist TV……….

images.  The table and the rug – separated by a distance of about 18 inches – serve as the static layers in Leung’s design. To reposition the layers in relationship to each other (and animate the carp) an observer merely needs to move his viewpoint! Interference points between the table and the rug trick your mind and your eye into perceiving motion beneath the table.  Leung’s Magic Carp-pet was named winner of the Red Dot Design Award: Best of the Best 2011.

I must have replayed this video a dozen times!  This is my kind of eye candy!  How about you?