Compose Your Own “Blob Opera” with Google Arts + Culture The latest interactive offering from Google Arts & Culture, this time in conjunction with artist David Li, Blob Opera allows users—with the help of machine learning—to string together a song from a quartet of operatic colorful blobs. No musical training is necessary to bring the bass, mezzo-soprano, soprano and tenor blobs together—users simply select one (and access its …
The 16th annual Best Illusion of the Year Contest, hosted by the Neural Correlate Society, crowned a 2020 first prize winner this week. Japanese mathematician Kokichi Sugihara’s 3D Schröder Staircase wowed judges with its ingenuity. The Schröder Staircase (aka Schröder’s Stairs) is typically done in 2D on paper with ink or pencil, but Sugihara deciphered a way to render the illusion in real life and …
To get drivers to slow down at crosswalks, India is experimenting with painted optical illusions instead of speed-bumps. Created by artists Saumya Pandya Thakkar and Shakuntala Pandya, the street paintings appear to be 3D road blocks as drivers approach, forcing them to slow down in their confusion. As they get closer, it becomes apparent that the blocks are actually flat, so drivers don’t actually come …
