Monday, November 27, 2017

What manner of trickery is this?

From American Digest. Something wonderful, the Escherian stairwell


Look, we're all grownups, okay? This is not a spoiler.

1) Plain dull trickery. That's what kind.

2) The students cannot answer because they're unfairly presented with a neologism that they do not recognize. Had the narrator asked them. "Do you know where the Escher stairwell is?" Then they would have a fair chance at answering, "In an art book."

If the students were real.

3) Escher's stairwell works on paper because like so much of his work Escher played around with what happens when a dimension is forfeited. A 3-dimensonal object is depicted on 2-dimensional paper. All kind of mischief is possible. The simplest form is a stack of cubes drawn on paper. The corners appear to either come at you or go into the paper. Either way is possible because three dimensions are reduced to two and your brain must fill in for the missing dimension for the picture to make sense.

And that is not possible in 3-dimensions. The stairwell is a fraud. The video is fraudulent. The students are actors.

Drawing and video at this link. Again, comments can clarify.

YouTube, more Escherian Stairwells.

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