Remember the Marilyn Monroe morph in my July 4th post? Remember when I said that on average about 1 person out of every 7 people can instantly identify Marilyn Monroe without using a mirror decoder? I was wrong. Turns out it depends on the folks who show up! When you...
Rare and Valuable Talents Might be Discovered in that Young Head! I remember witnessing a jaw-dropping ability in an eleven year-old. The child had no clue he possessed the gift. That day changed his life and mine. The occasion was a reflection/refraction workshop I...
OK Go’s Anamorphic Art Video is their latest optical illusion treat. Rolling Stone says the video took nearly three weeks to rehearse and 50 takes to get right....
Credit: Core 77 6/1/15 Using a Steel Ball, Motorized Magnets and Sand to Draw CNC Zen Gardens. Combing your Zen garden with a rake is so 15th Century. So inventor Bruce Shapiro’s Sisyphus machine ditches the rake and uses steel balls, untouched by human hands...
“Man and Woman” is a 26 foot tall animated steel sculpture by Georgian sculptor Tamara Kvesitadze. It is installed in the seaside city of Batumi, Georgia. The two figures represent a Muslim boy, Ali, and a Georgian princess, Nino, from a famous 1937 novel by...
The following review of Morph-O-Scopes Kits appeared in the September 2010 CoolMomPicks. We learned of it only recently! The review is reprinted here with permission of Liz Gumbinner, Publisher, Editor-in-Chief of CoolMomPicks.com. “I’m not going to lie...
Acknowledgement: COLOSSAL Art, Design, and Visual Culture by Christopher Jobson on April 13, 2015 Artist Scott Blake, known widely for his barcode art, recently began experimenting with the humble hole puncher. By punching different patterns that shift from page to...
It’s been quite the week for optical illusions in our family! First of all, two days ago Microsoft launched its ultra top secret product – Hololens. My daughter, a software engineer at MS, said she has been working on this project for more than two years!...
It’s an old visual trick: precisely parallel lines on a transparent sheet slid over specially striated images create the illusion of motion. But Brusspup always delivers fresh fun. In this new video he makes a ring transform to revolving balls and change color!...
Oh, I wish I were able to afford everything Jony Ive serves up for Apple, but at least I get to drool over products and concepts he and Apple newbie Marc Newson will be concocting for our appreciative palates. Legions of us are terribly grateful for their exquisite...
I adore negatives that are also positives – anything that can be seen more than one way. I grin like a fool at two-toned silk fabric, figure/ground logos, mowed baseball fields, vacuumed-patterned rugs, and even double entendres like Flintstones’ slogan...
OK. OK. I hear the groans. (Giggle) My brain can’t resist playing with words the way Zachery Copfer plays with bacteria – fancifully, lovingly. Microbiologist-turned-artist, Copfer has had a long, close, I might even say symbiotic interaction with...
WEST SEATTLE — (Brett Cihon’s article paraphrased below.) Peregrine Church, 21, has created art with a different twist. The art appears only when it rains. Church uses a biologically friendly superhydrocoating to paint inspirational phrases on sidewalks. The...
Morph-O-Scopes “Sports of All Sorts” Kit Wins 2014 Academics’ Choice Award for Mind-Building Excellence SEATTLE, WA (May 1, 2014) – OOZ & OZ is pleased to announce that its Morph-O-Scopes “Sports of All Sorts” Kit has been honored with a 2014 Academics’ Choice...
What do I think? I think the Arts absolutely deserve a seat at the STEM table. No question! The Arts utilize the same critical thinking skills essential for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The difference between STEM and STEAM lies chiefly in the form taken...
The first video below – Brusspup’s Rubik’s Cube – went viral this year. I know because customers from all over the world who loved and bought Morph-O-Scopes from me at the Ventures Store in Seattle’s Pike Place Market were excited to...
Ambivalent feelings this Valentine’s Day? Read the black letters then read the pink to see the opposite. Ambigrams are extremely clever exercises in graphic design that play with optical illusions, symmetry and visual perception to create images which can be...
One of my favorite optical illusionists, Brusspup, is at it again with his latest anamorphic tricks. I understand he shoots photos of simple oblects like those in the photo below, skews the images in Photoshop, prints them, trims the paper, and positions the skewed...
Scientific Method depends on top-notch observation skills that visual art curricula should be enhancing, but some art lessons need serious improvement. Let’s take the portrait-drawing formula – where kids draw an oval head, grid it, position eyes,...
… and gettin’ the giggles, gasping “whoa!” and calling Morph-O-Scopes activities “Awesome!” Kids 5 to 12 were all totally engaged and delighted, as you’ll see. And so was the staff! What a terrific afternoon for...
