Illusions and Architecture: tricks and mazes
- celineframpton
- Feb 15, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 2, 2021
Illusion can be defined as " a false illustration of something, a deceptive impression, or a false belief" and can be considered a simulation. [1] An illusion is something that appears factual when in actuality it is false, tricking the mind into thinking "an unreal into a real," contradicting objective reality. Illusion can then be said to mislead the perception of viewer by deceiving their senses: "illusion is a delusion of real sensation". Illusionism's function can be to surprise, or as seen in the examples to come to trick, confuse and delay. Illusion encourages the audience's exploration of the concept a proposed reality's factuality, and how illusion effects plot when used as a narrative device.
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[1] - [3] - https://literarydevices.net/illusion/
Chase sequence in Richard Williams' The Thief and the Cobbler (1995)
A seemingly monochromatic flat surface/tiled floor becomes coloured revealing differentiation in depth. This depth trap the protagonist (figure left) and slows him down while the antagonist escapes (see image 2)
A top view of a space infers that we are looking at a tiled floor. Especially, when we see the antagonist walk across it (screen right to screen left.)
In the following moments, the antagonist walks across the second iteration of the tiled surface. This time however he falls down the hole.
Another example, the antagonist (being chased by the protagonist) slides down what looks like a spiral pole with slatted walls.
In fact, he is actually sliding down the balustrade of a circular staircase. Which diverts from its circularity the further down the characters travel.
Maurits Cornelis Escher, Waterfall, 1961, Lithograph. Image source: http://www.artnet.com/artists/mc-escher/waterfall-c3fqHeRp-O5uheqvewNSgQ2
M.C. Escher's Waterfall depicts a perpetual motion machine, where water travels from a waterwheel down a path to a waterfall which turns the waterwheel - and so it infinitely loops. Waterfall utilises the conflicting proportions of Penrose triangles to create a visual paradox. " The Penrose triangle appears to move toward the viewer (right edge) and extend away (left edge) from them and lie on a flat plane (bottom edge)." Three perspectives that cannot exist together within a typical 3D triangle. Therefore, a Penrose triangle is an impossible object: as it depicts an object which can only exist as a visual (2D) representation. The illusion of the Penrose triangle takes advantage of the (human) eye's interpretation of two-dimensional pictures as three-dimensional objects. The perception of depth, due to angled lines and tonal variations of a colour, of the Penrose stairs makes the viewer believes its vertices are touching. Thus, the same distance from the viewer or the the plane of the picture - in actuality the vertices are not connected, as shown in the animation below.
Texts cited
Celine Frampton, A Penrose triangle, 2021, moving image.
M.C. Escher's Waterfall has been recreated in digital 3D animations to delineate its illusionism and impossibility in 3D as seen in the examples below.
Im particularly interested in how the concept of the impossible object interacts with the concept of speculative object. How the impossible object could be a 2D speculative object, that cannot exist in the 3D world. Although Escher doesn't specifically prophesise his objects/architectures to exist in the future, they could be said to be objects/architectures of science fiction due to their unreality and impossibility, and the often medieval time period they are set within. When created as a 3D model, the impossible object is revealed to be “impossible", “liminal” and “obsolete” (as noted by Lizzie Muller as a descriptors of speculative objects). The visual speculation created by illusion and it's perceived form and function is actually deconstructed and dysfunctional when subjected to three dimensionality. The object is therefore only possible in 2D visualisation, not in 3D materialisation.
The concept of architecture that tricks is utilised within Christopher Nolan's 2010 film Inception, which adopts Penrose stairs.
The plot of Inception, as described by Warner Brothers, focuses around the protagonist "Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio). A thief who has a rare ability to enter people's dreams and steal their secrets from their subconscious. His skill has made him a hot commodity in the world of corporate espionage but has also cost him everything he loves. Cobb gets a chance at redemption when he is offered a seemingly impossible task: Plant an idea in someone's mind. If he succeeds, it will be the perfect crime, but a dangerous enemy anticipates Cobb's every move."
The Penrose stairs if often considered to be the infinite stair case, as it appears to allow travel upwards and downwards in an infinite loop. Utilising the concept of the Penrose triangle, as seen in Waterfall, the Penrose stair is merely an illusion which is only upheld in 2D representations. The Penrose stair in actuality is disconnected from it's beginning or building floor, meaning if the user notices it's disconnection has to descend the staircase to finish where he started.
Within Inception, the Penrose stair case is utilised by the dreamer as a trick, to contain Projections (of the subject's conciousness). As the projections take the stairs in order to catch the dreamer, they are left at a dead end unable to do so.In tricking the projections, the dreamer helps diminishes the ability of projections ejecting them from the dream.
Staircase - seen in “Inception” (2010)
See how the Penrose steps are utilised and it's illusion deconstructed within Inception (2010) below.
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