M.C.Escher paintings and engravings are playing havoc with perspective and the way our senses and brain build and internal image of what is visible. I would not believe it possible to reproduce them with such a rigid structure as the one provided by Lego bricks.

Andrew Lipson is not the guy to be stopped by mere impossibility. He started with a simple deformation:

Escher's Balcony in LEGO by Andrew Lipson and Daniel Shiu, inspired by M.C. Escher's Balcony (1945)

After this little play, he went to much more serious work, one engraving that is not possible in the real world. A few inconsistencies, but a good copy of one of the most famous M.C.Escher paintings:

Escher's Belvedere in LEGO by Andrew Lipson and Daniel Shiu, inspired by M.C. Escher's Belvedere (1958)

My preference goes to Relativity (and what it reminds me of the movie “The name of the rose“, with Sean Connery):

Escher's Relativity in LEGO by Andrew Lipson and Daniel Shiu, inspired by M.C. Escher's Relativity (1953)

Then, a completely warped perspective made out of these little LEGO bricks:

Escher's Waterfall in LEGO by Andrew Lipson and Daniel Shiu, inspired by M.C. Escher's Waterfall (1961)

Source: Neatorama.

This video was created to illustrate True Reverse Perspective.

True Reverse Perspective from JMS on Vimeo.

You will notice that the perspective is totally reversed (near objects are small and far ones are small). Slightly perturbating for the senses, indeed.

The weather is hot, but don’t fall for this optical illusion.

The choice of colors is making this field of dots totally warped. But it’s not.

Some other colors may not work as well, but it’s still operating quite well in black and white.

Kelly Coats is an artist who created this weird wheel whose pretty little name is phenakistiscope, and makes the whole life of Michael Jackson move before your dazzled eyes in only a few seconds.

Last week issue of The New Yorker is pretty much all that we love in optical illusions and is a clear homage to M.C.Escher and his paintings:

Who would have thought that we would have a newsworthy optical illusion here?

BP made it possible.

Via: The excellent political blog of Iron Knee: Political Irony.