OP ART

OP ART is short for optical art, a style of visual art that uses optical illusions, giving the impression of movement, hidden images, vibrating patterns, swelling or warping.  Time magazine coined the term OP ART in 1964.

Op art uses geometric shapes, colors and patterns to create images that appear to move or blur.  This style of art can have subtle, disorienting, even disturbing, effects on the viewer.

Optical illusions trick our eyes and confuse our brains.  They can be fun, and they can also be good teachers.  One lesson they teach is how we see something differently from how it really is. 

Peripheral Drift Illusion

Do the above blue dots appear to be floating?  If we keep our eyes on one particular dot, the perceived illusion should stop.  In reality, the dots aren't moving.....it's merely an illusion.  

Kanizsa Square

Do you see a large white square in the center?  Actually, the square is not there, but our brain tricks us by filling in the gaps between the four Pac-man-like shapes.  This illusion exemplifies how our brains fill in gaps when we have incomplete information, or how it creates an image that isn't even there.  

I've always been fascinated by optical illusions, like the Rabbit or Duck.  If I see a duck and you see a rabbit, is it any wonder we disagree on what we each see? I'm not wrong.  You're not wrong.  If we continue to look at the picture, I might see what you're seeing and you might see what I'm seeing.  

Rabbit or Duck?

What influences our perception?  Our heredity does, our needs do, the people we socialize with can influence our thinking, our personal interests, talents and expectations.  

Let's spotlight on the expectations of others.    What happens when we don't fulfill someone's expectations of us based on their wishes or their needs?  It can lead to their disappointment in us when reality does not match up to what they hoped would happen.  Scientists call this "the expectation effect".....the brain's power to create self-fulfilling and unrealistic expectations of others.  Having an expectation of another person rarely takes the other person's feelings into account.  It's selfish and can be harmful to personal relationships.  Expectations of others can kill happiness.  The desire for something to happen, or for someone to do something in a certain way and at a certain time, can destroy a relationship.

Rubin's Vase
The Two Face,
One Vase Illusion

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."  ~Anais Nin

"Though we see the same world, we see it through different eyes."  ~Virginia Woolf

"Each person does see the world in a different way.  There is not a single, unifying, objective truth.  We're all limited by our perspective."  ~Brainy Quote

One large step for mankind would be if could acknowledge that we all interpret the same situation or information in different ways, based on our personal experiences, beliefs and moral values.  "Each of us has our own lens that we see the world through."