The most amazing optical illusions 2021 make you lose faith in your eyes

First Prize: The Phantom Queen (Matt Pritchard)

Matt Pritchard from the UK used a mirror and an ordinary chess board to create an amazing illusion of a white queen on the board, which can only be seen in the opposite mirror.

The secret of this work is a piece of paper drawing a checkerboard. It is positioned so that it can hide the piece when viewed from the front but will be visible in the reflection.

Second Prize: The Changing Room Illusion (Michael A. Cohen)

In second place is the work of Michael A. Cohen of Amherst University and MIT.

The video shows a slowly changing effect in a room that is not noticeable to the observer.

Third Prize: The Double Ring Illusion (Dawei Bai and Brent Strickland)

Dawei Bai and Brent Strickland took third place with a work showing how the brain can influence the way our eyes perceive everything around us.

We will see two circles rotating 360° continuously when they are not touching each other. But when they overlap, we will see that they only rotate 180°.

Consolation Prize: Crocs & Socks (Pascal Wallisch and Michael Karlovich)

A pair of pink Crocs with white socks is what people see in normal light. But when viewed under green light, people will see the Crocs as gray.

Consolation Prize: Emergent City Flyby with Colossus (Christopher Tyler and David Phillips)

When paused, we'll just see a bunch of random white dots. However, when moving we will see a vast city with endless buildings and a giant head in the night sky.

Consolation Prize: Oh La La Box (Olivier and Chloe Redon)

First we will see a red square box. But when we change the viewing angle, we only see two layers of paper lying on top of each other.

Consolation Prize: Slime Hand (Yutaro Sato, Kento Imai and Kenri Kodaka)

This is the illusion that causes a person to believe that the skin of their hand is being pulled away while it is still safely behind a shield.

Consolation Prize: Rising Object Illusion (Kokichi Sugihara)

Visual illusions deceive us by the reflections of objects. In this case, the objects are lying but standing upright in the mirror.

Consolation Prize: Cubic Confusion (Michael Cheshire)

Michael Cheshire has created a 2D model that has layers of wood grain with different levels of paint that make it look like a complex 3D shape.

Samuel Daniel

Update 04 January 2022