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I recently visited the London Barbican’s Digital Revolution exhibit, whilst traveling around London. The exhibit was an immersive exhibition of the history and future of art, design, film, music and video games. It featured everything from a Pong arcade game, to an awesome piece by Marshmallow Laser Feast.
One of the featured exhibits was done by Will.i.am using projection mapping and a really old magic trick. The piece featured a large (~6ft tall) bust of Will.i.am singing, and with relatively gaudily projection mapped content.
“This is Mona Lisa times a trillion” – Will.i.am
Yes he actually said that…
The magic was that the eyes of the bust followed you around as you moved through the room. WILL.I.AM IS WATCHING YOU! This is a really simple trick known as the Hollow-Face illusion. Instead of a normal bust of Will.i.am’s face, the bust was inverted to be concave (not convex). Essentially, we as human beings are used to seeing normal, convex faces that you know, look like faces. So when you invert the face (and make it concave), our brains still attempt to interpret the face as if it was convex. This leads to the effect of the face following you as you move around the room. In order for your brain to interpret the face as normal and convex, it assumes the face must be rotating. This illusion has appeared in ancient ruins, Disney’s the Haunted Mansion and now projection mapped art!/
If you want to try out the effect yourself, you can make your own cute little dragon, which uses the same effect. (Pro tip: it looks best viewed through a camera or with one eye close (or if you are a pirate)).
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Strangely Will.i.am decided to turn this interactive art installation into a commercial for Lexus.
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