http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18...ntest.html

Full versions of impossible motion and impossible solid 3D illusions:

http://gcoe.mims.meiji.ac.jp/jpn/movie/i...index.html

http://gcoe.mims.meiji.ac.jp/jpn/movie/i...index.html

Amusing. But most stills look very strange; it's obvious to any painter that the color values are wrong and that the perspective is way off. You'd be lucky to get a D if you painted like that in an arts class.

Quote:Fake, I've seen a lot of illustrations in my time and I can tell by the pigments.

iSoron Wrote:Amusing. But most stills look very strange; it's obvious to any painter that the color values are wrong and that the perspective is way off. You'd be lucky to get a D if you painted like that in an arts class.

It should be obvious to anyone that the perspective is way off, since that's how these kinds of illusions work. Doesn't make it any less brain-bending to watch, though, unless you happen to be one of the rare people who grew up blind due to eye damage, then had it repaired but ended up with vision that doesn't work right because your brain is no longer wired to process the data, leaving you barely better than blind, but immune to optical illusions.

Mcjon01 Wrote:It should be obvious to anyone that the perspective is way off, since that's how these kinds of illusions work.

It's obvious it's way off even before he pierces the boxes with the stick.

Yah they're really cool. There's nothing really overt about it that breaks the illusion, until it's run its course via the motion and angle change. There's many subtle clues that give an 'off' feeling and for some, I was able to imagine what the 'real' shape was before and during, in a vague way due to this and the nature of the movement, but it didn't really lessen the immediate trippy effect and still doesn't even after repeated viewing.

I just think the object-generation via persepectival goals of imaginary impossible shapes is really interesting, like that curved triangle. (Tangentially, there's also that kindergarten trick with graphs where you make a curve exclusively with straight lines.)

I also liked the music.

Those crazy Japanese! Don't they also have a class of invented useless objects, or a contest or something? Kind of like a variation of Rube Goldberg devices.

There's also that Japanese fellow whose work was popularised in English-speaking areas via an Animal Collective album cover.

Hiroshi Sugimoto has some cool sculpture photography at the end of that book with ocean pictures/empty theatres. Totally rambling now with only a nominal Japanese connection. ;p

Edit: Ahha! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chind%C5%8Dgu

Those chindogu useless inventions that are always trotted about in western media as being common in Japan are really just all made by one guy. It's not a phenomenon or a "Japanese art".

Jarvik7 Wrote:Those chindogu useless inventions that are always trotted about in western media as being common in Japan are really just all made by one guy. It's not a phenomenon or a "Japanese art".

Yeah I saw that as I Googled for it. I was pretty sure it was limited, hence the joke, but didn't realize it was that limited. Isn't there some kind of group of hobbyists for it or something? I might be conflating the Goldberg device contest with chindogu in my memory, though. Too lazy to look it up.

Yah see, pretty sure it's not just one guy: http://chindogu.com/chindogu/ - According to Wikipedia, the books by the one person are very popular and there's an int'l group of amateur enthusiasts at that site? Doesn't mean it's not a limited, overhyped and obsolete fad, though, as it was something that was passed around blogs a few years ago alongside 'those wacky Japanese' comments, the memory of which inspired my comment.

From what I can tell the international group is just a small group of people who were inspired by the guy, probably from the constantly reused clips on TLC/Discovery channel etc.

-edit- Actually upon looking at the site some more it seems that it's just a bunch of pics the site owner collected off the internet, with no indication that the people involved are even aware of "chindogu".

Quote:chin is Japanese for "weird" (not to be confused with the Japanese for "penis", which is also chin). Thus, a chindogu is a weird tool. (Likewise, chinchin is a weird penis.

It sounds like the president doesn't speak Japanese. In the same bio it mentions that the Japanese guy is a comedian. I guess that makes him exactly the same as CarrotTop.

Here's an interview with Kenji Kawakami: http://pingmag.jp/2008/01/11/chindougu/ - Cool, I do like the idea. That reminds me, I need to get more episodes of Pythagoras Switch.