Interested in the ways brains process visual information and the influence of context and frame of reference, psychologist Jules Beuchet first described his eponymous chair illusion in the mid twentieth century, and while popular for museum installations and retaining the effect in photographs unlike some others (see also here and here), we learn that the compelling dissonance, accidentally exemplified by this image of the giant Bidens with the tiny Carters without set up—courtesy of Futility Closet—we discover a new, more portable technique for disabusing this trick, staged easier with a tripod, a miniature frame and piece of upholstery, requiring much less space and focal length to achieve the result.
Saturday, 20 September 2025
forced perspective (12. 745)
Interested in the ways brains process visual information and the influence of context and frame of reference, psychologist Jules Beuchet first described his eponymous chair illusion in the mid twentieth century, and while popular for museum installations and retaining the effect in photographs unlike some others (see also here and here), we learn that the compelling dissonance, accidentally exemplified by this image of the giant Bidens with the tiny Carters without set up—courtesy of Futility Closet—we discover a new, more portable technique for disabusing this trick, staged easier with a tripod, a miniature frame and piece of upholstery, requiring much less space and focal length to achieve the result.