Moving on to optical illusions.

Whilst dealing with movement in art, I began to focus on Optical Illusions. Op art is comprised of illusion, and often appears to the human eye, to be moving or breathing due to its precise , mathematically based composition. Op art exists to fool the eye. Compositions create a sort of visual tension, in the viewers mind, that gives the work the illusion of movement.
  When I thought of movement, Op art came to mind because it's ability to trick our eyes into thinking there's movement when there isn't. It's a movement that exploited the fallibility of the eye through the use of optical illusions, which are made through the use of perceptive illusion and chromatic tension.

I researched optical illusions in art through the years and found M.C Escher, 'The Father of Impossible Figures', Victor Vaserly, the leader of the Op Art movement, Bridget Riley, Josepf Albers and many more.

M.C Escher

I found the impossible figure very interesting. A 2D figure which is instantly and subconsciously interpreted by the visual system as representing a projection of a 3D object, although it is not actually possible for such an object to exist. M.C Escher explored this idea and experimented with the impossible
I played around with the Penrose triangle and staircase. There is constant movement in these, as your eye is following and following the stairs expecting to come to an end but it keeps circulating. I found a template for the impossible triangle 3D online and printed it out and put it together. At the right angle when photographed it looks like a 3D model of the impossible triangle.

Victor Vaserly

 

Use of Escher's impossible staircase in todays world.

Victor Vaserly experiemnted with the optical illusion in 3D, as seen in the photo to the right.

Rileys paintings really portrayed movement, she found a way of subverting the insistence of the column or line by introducing a form that interlocks, extends and by the way in which it's coloured, recedes and advances as if its breathing.

'Movement in Squares' Bridget Riley

After images are another type of optical illusion, the phenomenom of after images may be closely related to persistence of vision, which allows a rapid series of pictures to portray motion.