Illusions

The eight different illusions I went to were:
1. Stepping Feet
2. Motion Induced Blindness
3. Snake Illusion ad lib
4. Pinna-Brelstaff Illusion
5. Motion Aftereffect (Waterfall Illusion)
6. Spiral Aftereffect
7. Rogets Palisade Illusion
8. Stroboscopic Artefacts

These tutorials were really interesting to look at. Mainly because they make you think more about what is really happening. I think the big picture from "optical illusions" is that people see things that aren't really there. For example in Stepping Feet, which is the first illusion I looked at, there were two parallel bars that moved across a screen with a lined back round. When you are looking at the bars, it seems like they are uneven and moving at different speeds, when really they stay parallel the whole time. It's really interesting once you know what is actually happening compared to what you think is happening.

It really surprised me how much our eyes play tricks on us. I knew that this happens, because i've heard about optical illusions and I have seen them performed before by magicians without ever actually knowing what happened. At least with these illusions you were able to sense the illusion and then afterwards you were able to figure out why you saw a certain thing.

I wouldn't these illusions made me "change" my opinion of the world, but it does make you take a look at things more closely. I know at least for me that is true. After looking at the illusions I realized how much I wasn't paying attention to what was REALLY going on. For me that's important because you should know what is going on around you without being tricked by it. A lot of people see the world without ever really "seeing" it. Instead of focusing on things like how the world smells in the morning, or how pretty the sunset is tonight, we focus on what we have to do.. Such as getting to the football game before it's dark, or getting to work on time in order to maintain your job.

These illusions could have an effect on me because it really makes me want to pay closer attention to details in whatever is happening around me. For me this is really something I wish to accomplish because a lot of times I find myself missing details that are obvious to almost everyone else. Hopefully I will be able to use the knowledge I got today to allow me to focus in on things more and notice not just the big things, but all of the little things too.