Elephant No. 361: Rubin's Vase Illusion

I had always imagined that this kind of design would be a fairly easy thing to produce, so I thought I'd try it for today's elephant.

Rubin's Vase—also know as the Rubin Face or Figure-Ground Vase—is a famous image featuring a pair of two-dimensional forms, which can be viewed in two different ways. Developed sometime around 1915 by Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin, a selection of these types of images was later published in his book Synsoplevede Figurer ("Visual Figures"). The most successful of these was the vase, which has since been widely reproduced and imitated.

The original Rubin's vase illusion on the left, with an edited version on the right to
make the border more obvious.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rubin2.jpg

The idea behind the vase illusion is this: when two shapes share a common border, the border becomes the thing that guides perception of the two shapes. This gives the viewer two possible interpretations of the image, although the brain can maintain only one at a time. This is because the border can only be seen as belonging to the central image or the side images, but not both at the same time.

Our brains instinctively classify what they see by assessing which object surrounds which. If a coin is lying on the ground, for example, you would likely pay more attention to the coin, and less attention to its surroundings. The brain thus naturally normally sees "figure" rather than "ground".

In a Rubin's vase image, however, there is no clear distinction between figure and ground, and both have equal validity. The brain must thus begin shaping what it sees. When the brain tries to see the entire design as a whole, without fully recognizing either image, it gets confused and starts discarding information until a pattern can be seen. In Rubin's day, images such as this were accordingly used as diagnostic tools.

Some people see simple columns in the photograph; others see pairs of
leaning figures.
Source: http://www.moillusions.com/2006/04/people-trapped-inside-wall.html

To produce an effective Rubin's vase picture, the composite images should be flat, with little or no texture. Most modern illusions of this sort involve the traditional vase, with matching faces on either side, although there are more elaborate versions which involve fully painted scenes.

For today's elephant, I thought I'd produce two versions: one with two elephants facing one another, and one with a bunch of interlocking elephant shapes.

I thought it would be easy to produce these, but neither one was particularly simple. The one with two elephants facing one another was nigh on impossible, as you can see from my final paltry attempt.

I tried every angle of elephants, every shape of elephants, and every section of elephants, to try and get something reasonable. Because of the tusks and relatively smooth shape of the trunk, the vase idea didn't work, and even the insertion of an abstract elephant in the negative space between two elephants took some doing.

I eventually got two sketches that I thought would do.

The image with two elephants facing one another was simple to colour in. The one with six stylized elephants required grey in addition to black and white.

I don't love either of these and, having exhausted every design I could think of to arrive at the version with two facing elephants, I don't think I'll be trying this again anytime soon. At least not with elephants.

Elephant Lore of the Day
Elephants like to swim, but tend to grow restless on sea voyages. In 1933, Princess Alice, a circus elephant in Australia, was being transported by steamer, along with a great many other animals. Swaying restlessly on deck, her feet chained, she was clearly bored out of her mind.

Feeling around with her trunk for something to do, Alice discovered an interesting tap. She played with it for a while, until she figured out how to turn it. It happened to be a tap controlling the supply of steam to one of the ship's winches, so when Alice turned it, it released the winch drum. The clatter of the spinning drum brought alarmed deckhands running to the scene.

The tap was quickly turned off, and order was restored. As soon as everyone had gone, however, Alice turned the tap on again. As one report said, "the wicked gleam in her eyes suggested that she was enjoying the commotion." Alice did this so many times that an engineer ultimately spoiled her fun by turning off the supply of steam from below.

Later, this same engineer was dozing in his cabin, when a snake-like object floated through the porthole, hovering near his head. Leaping out of his bunk in shock, he discovered that it was an elephant's trunk.

Alice at an amusement park known as Wonderland City, Sydney, Australia, ca. 1907.
Source: http://circuszooanimals.blogspot.ca/2011/04/princess-alice-
lady-of-wonderland-city.html

To Support Elephant Welfare

World Wildlife Fund

World Society for the Protection of Animals

Performing Animal Welfare Society

Zoocheck

Bring the Elephant Home

African Wildlife Foundation

Elephants Without Borders 

Save the Elephants

International Elephant Foundation Elephant's World (Thailand) 

David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Elephant Nature Park (Thailand)

Wildlife Trust of India

Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary (Thailand)
Wildlife SOS (India)  
The Elephant Sanctuary (Tennessee, U.S.A.)

Fauna & Flora International

Elephant No. 358: The Disappearing Elephant

Today's elephant is based on a vintage optical illusion, colloquially called "The Disappearing Chinaman", invented by Sam Lloyd. First printed in 1896, the puzzle was revived in 1930 by Lloyd's son, Sam Lloyd, Jr.

The idea of this vanishing puzzle is simple in concept, but devilishly difficult to figure out at first glance. The puzzle involves a disc overlaying a larger scene. When the disc is rotated from NE to NW, it appears to make one of the small figures disappear. There are 13 figures when you start, and only 12 when the disc is rotated.

I had one of these in a box of reproduction vintage optical puzzles and illusions, so I used it to inspire today's elephant. For an explanation of the original puzzle, as well as a downloadable version you can assemble yourself, click here.

The Disappearing Chinaman, 1930.
Source: The Paradox Box, Julian Rothenstein,
Shambala, 1999.

I started by drawing a circle. Next, I drew a box measuring 12.5 x 17.5 cm (5 x 7 inches), to serve as the base. I then cut out both pieces, and linked them together with a small brad that allows them to freely rotate. I also drew the arrow that points to NE, and lines for both NE and NW.

Now came the part that was hard for me to wrap my mind around. Lining up one set of these lines, I began drawing elephants, overlapping them in various ways. The idea is to make it possible for adjacent elephants to line up in order to create a new elephant. One of them will need to be a "double" elephant to allow one of them to disappear when the disc is rotated.

This part literally took me hours. I played with the original puzzle, trying to figure out which figure disappears, and how to pose my elephants to make this happen. At first, it seemed easy: just make adjacent elephants work together. The problem arises when you get to the end of this process, and find that nothing matches. You end up with legs in the middle of nowhere, and no elephant with which to match them.

I tried elephants with all their legs facing into the middle. The bodies were outside the disc, and the legs were on the disc. I thought it might work if I made one set of four legs into two sets of two legs. While that works, it doesn't make anything disappear.

Next I tried circus elephants doing various things, with legs and arms all over the place. I ended up with the same problem: the elephants worked with their neighbours, but nothing disappeared.

I went back to the legs in the middle and bodies outside the disc. I actually thought I had it figured out, but discovered—just as I was about to ink everything in—that I again had elephants that worked with their neighbours, but no disappearing elephant.

In desperation, I referred to the original puzzle, and started drawing elephants in similar poses. I still ran into difficulties making some of the elephants match up, but I did finally make one of them disappear. From twelve elephants when the arrow points to NE, it dropped to eleven elephants when I moved the arrow to NW.

I still can't really explain how it works, and I'd never be able to reproduce this in different poses. But after three hours of drawing and erasing a dozen elephants, I was just happy it worked.

I inked everything in, and heat-set it with a hairdryer. I then painted everything with gouache.

When everything was dry, I assembled it and tested it again to be sure it worked. It did.

This is what it looked like with the arrow pointing to NE.

And this is what it looked like with the arrow pointing to NW.

Now that I know how to do this, I would be willing to redraw one exactly like this. But I'd never attempt adding extra elephants, and if anyone were to ask me how it works, I'd still have to say that I don't have a clue.

Elephant Lore of the Day
Over the past year, many people have asked me when I began liking elephants. Although I can't pinpoint the exact moment, it might have been when I lived in Africa as a child. We lived in Nigeria, and one day took a trip to the Waza Game Preserve in neighbouring Cameroon.

I have no idea what it's like there today, but back then it was probably like being on the Serengeti. I remember our landrover screeching to a halt as a herd of elephants thundered past, and the whiplike necks of giraffes running in the distance. I also remember how the ground vibrated as several rhinos hove into view. I was only five or six at the time, but I've never forgotten it.

Sadly, Cameroon—although thankfully not the Waza Game Preserve—was the site of one of the worst poaching episodes in recent memory. Earlier this year, within the space of a few hours, over 200 elephants were killed at Bouba N’Djida National Park in northeastern Cameroon. This is a full 50% of the elephants in the region, and it is suspected that poachers have moved into Cameroon as the next frontier, having already wiped out elephant populations in nearby Chad and the Central African Republic.

Over the past ten years, elephants have been disappearing at an astonishing rate. A passion for ivory in the Far East—and a growing ability to afford it—is driving demand for elephant tusks in every part of the world. Where people once saw the occasional poacher picking off an elephant or two, there are now well-equipped marauders in jeeps and helicopters, armed with high-powered rifles.

Not content with killing elephants, in some parts of Africa they have also taken to murdering those whose job it is to protect dwindling wildlife populations. Nor do they limit themselves to rifles. Some poachers simply lob grenades into herds of elephants, or leave out poison-laced fruit. In some parts of Africa, the illicit trade in ivory is even believed responsible for supporting military forces, such as the disgraced Joseph Kony's rebel army in Uganda, and warlords in Somalia.

Even more disturbingly, poaching now appears to be driven from outside Africa. Many of the most recent arrests for ivory poaching have been of Chinese middlemen, caught with large shipments of African ivory. According to several sources, the number of Chinese nationals now operating in Africa's illicit ivory trade is growing, with no end in sight. Nor are elephants the only animals affected. In 2011, more than 400 rhinos were killed in South Africa for their horns, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Africa is not alone. A number of elephant populations in Asia are also seriously endangered. At least one country's elephants are about to become extinct. Much of this is also due to poaching, although habitat loss is a significant factor in Asia as well.

This is not to say that no one cares. There are dedicated conservationists in China, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, and even countries with tiny populations of elephants such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The same is true of Africa, where wildlife rangers and national military forces often put their lives on the line to protect elephants from the activities of poachers and even irate farmers.

A number of solutions have been proposed to try and stem the tide of illicit killing for the sake of ivory. Some say that worldwide stockpiles of ivory should be released onto the open market. This would likely cause a precipitous drop in price, and make poaching less profitable. Others say that more money should be put into elephant protection, forensic tracking of ivory, and more severe penalties for the perpetrators.

There are arguments to be made for all of these. However, I don't think anything will stop the killing of elephants—whether for their ivory, or because they've trampled a farmer's corn—unless and until human beings stop seeing elephants as disposable vermin, and start seeing them for the intelligent, sensitive creatures they truly are.

Family of African elephants.
Source: http://www.hedweb.com/animimag/elephant-family.htm

To Support Elephant Welfare

World Wildlife Fund

World Society for the Protection of Animals

Performing Animal Welfare Society

Zoocheck

Bring the Elephant Home

African Wildlife Foundation

Elephants Without Borders 

Save the Elephants

International Elephant Foundation Elephant's World (Thailand) 

David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Elephant Nature Park (Thailand)

Wildlife Trust of India

Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary (Thailand)
Wildlife SOS (India)  
The Elephant Sanctuary (Tennessee, U.S.A.)

Fauna & Flora International

Elephant No. 353: Anamorphosis

When researching mirrors a few days ago, I came across the principle of anamorphosis, which is something I've never really tried before. Anamorphosis—from the Greek ana (again) and morphe (shape)—involves distorting an image such that either a special device or specific vantage point is required to make visual sense of the image.

There are two primary types of anamorphosis. Mirror or "catoptric" anamorphosis requires a cylindrical or conical mirror to view a distorted flat image. Perspective or "oblique" anamorphosis requires that the viewer stand at a certain angle or distance to view the image. Perspective anamorphosis is most often used in sidewalk drawings and on the painted ceilings of cathedrals, palaces and stately homes. Interestingly, anamorphosis has also been used to "hide" erotic, mystical or scatalogical scenes for the delectation of the initiated.

Two views of the same work by Felice Varini,
illustrating the importance of vantage point in
some anamorphic art.
Source: http://gbcmag.com/2009/11/15/felice-varini-
anamorphic-illusions/

The earliest known example of anamorphic perspective is Leonardo's Eye, drawn by Leonardo da Vinci in 1485. Other Renaissance artists used similar visual tricks, and by the seventeenth century, Baroque artists were using anamorphosis extensively to create large-scale trompe l'oeil murals. 

Baroque ceiling of the Church of San Ignacio de Loyola, Rome, using perspective
anamorphic techniques.
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/j-s-c/4666541124/

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, anamorphosis was demoted from fine art to a novelty, aimed particularly at children. By the early twentieth century, however, artists such as Marcel Duchamps and Salvador Dalí were experimenting with anamorphic illusions, and various artists have continued to play with anamorphosis ever since. In addition to works of fine art, anamorphosis has also returned as an educational toy for children.

Anamorphic trompe l'oeil wall mural by John Pugh.
Source: http://www.aliraqi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=93745

Anamorphosis is also used in widescreen film formats. This allows a wider image to be projected from a narrower film frame. Anamorphosis is used as well in text written on roadways and playing fields.

For today's elephant, I decided to play with catoptric anamorphosis. If you look online, you can find instructions for turning a drawing into a catoptric image using a grid. I looked at these and puzzled over them, thinking I should maybe try to do this old-school. Then I decided that they were beyond my meagre mapping abilities, if I hoped to finish this within a single day. If you're braver than I, you can find instructions for drawing a catoptric image here.

There are also software packages you can download that will convert a basic image into something catoptric. I tried downloading a Mac-based one called "Mirror 1", but I couldn't get it to work properly, no matter what I tried.

Then I remembered that I have Adobe Illustrator. This particular software package has a function that allows you to warp an image into an arc, so I decided to try that.

The next challenge was finding something shiny and cylindrical. This is not as easy as one would think. I looked in educational shops for an anamorphic kit for children. No luck—in fact, I got blank stares when I tried to describe it.

Next I tried a couple of hardware stores to see if I could find a sheet of shiny tin. None of it was shiny enough, and I wasn't sure that even polishing the heck out of it would make it all that mirror-like.

Then I saw a very shiny stainless steel mug in the grocery store. This seemed quite shiny when I put my hand against it, so that's what I chose. It's not all that slim, so I wasn't sure how well it would work, but it was the closest thing I could find. I noticed afterwards that it's not as glassy as I'd thought, and it has a few distortions, but it wasn't horrible.

I started with the suncatcher elephant I made yesterday. Here is the photo I started with, followed by the catoptric version.

And here's what it looked like reflected in my stainless steel mug.

Being quite happy with this, I tried several more:

my repoussé elephant

 

my silhouette elephant

my Fauvism elephant

my pencil elephant 

and my robot elephant.

Once I figured out how to do this, it was a piece of cake. My particular method was as follows:

1. Open your chosen image in Adobe's Creative Suite Illustrator. I used Illustrator 11.

2. Go to Effect, then Warp, then Arc.

3. Set Bend to -92. This gave me the shape I wanted, but you can play with this on the sliding scale.

4. Because this will give you a reverse/upside-down image, you now need to rotate the image. I did this by going to Object, then Transform, then Rotate. I set the rotation to 180˚. 

5. And because the image will generally be quite large, you now need to size it down. I did this by dragging the corners of the onscreen blue box until the blank half-circle at the top measured about the same as the half-circumference of my coffee mug. You can stretch or compress the image as well by changing the proportions of the box.

I'm no expert in Illustrator, but this was the process I used for all the images here, and it worked out quite well. I had to move the mug around a bit to get a non-distorted image, and I needed a slightly taller mirrored surface for the Fauvism elephant, but I was generally happy with the results.

As regular readers of this blog have probably guessed, I like toys and optical illusions, so this little exercise was tailor-made for someone like me. The hardest part was finding something suitably shiny. The next hardest part was figuring out the parameters for distorting the images, but even that only took about half an hour.

I don't think I need a library of these types of things, but I'm happy to have this small selection. In fact, I may even inflict something similar on people as gifts, now that I know where to find a shiny coffee mug.

Elephant Lore of the Day
During the late nineteenth century, Gypsy the elephant was a well-known circus performer. She could play the harmonica and do many other tricks, and appeared quite gentle and amenable in the ring.

Despite her apparent good nature in public, however, Gypsy was actually a mass-murderer with an infamous reputation for killing trainers and keepers. Over a period of sixteen years, Gypsy killed at least eight men before she was finally euthanized.

It also appears that Gypsy's murders were often premeditated. The date of her first killing is unknown, but the first to appear in the newspapers occurred in 1885, when she was performing under the name "Empress" with the Adam Forepaugh Circus. According to a couple of published newspaper accounts, Gypsy had been restless and anxious in her enclosure, trumpeting loudly and swaying. Keepers were at a loss to determine what was wrong. She had been fed, so one of the keepers thought she might be thirsty.

Despite being warned that Gypsy was unpredictable, a keeper named Robert White said he could handle her, and entered her enclosure. Gypsy was calm and quiet as White unwound the chains around her legs. She obediently followed him towards the exit of the enclosure, then suddenly snorted, raised her head, and sent White sprawling with a heavy blow from her trunk. She hit him again with her trunk, then raised her front leg and stamped on his chest.

As White lay there moaning, accounts differ as to what Gypsy did next. One report said that she picked him up and tossed him against the wall, disembowelling him. Other reports said that she stabbed him with one of her tusks. Given that female Asian elephants don't have noticeable tusks, the former is more likely. Gypsy was eventually subdued by a man carrying a spear, led back into her enclosure and chained.

Poster for the W.H. Harris circus, featuring Gypsy and a baby elephant—although
not her own baby.
Source: http://raycityhistory.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/
bloody-history-of-gypsy-the-elephant/

Killing a man was usually cause to put an elephant to death back then, but Gypsy was spared. She was sold to another circus, where her periodic killing spree continued. She also had no compunction about injuring those who offended her. One night, a circus worker removed a bit of Gypsy's hay to make a bed for himself. Gypsy watched as he did this, waited until he was asleep, then picked him up and tossed him against the wall.

After a public rampage in 1897, Gypsy was slated for public electrocution. She was reprieved yet again, when circus owners decided that the publicity made her more valuable than ever. People even began trading on her murderous reputation, suggesting that she would be a good weapon to Cuban insurgents fighting "the Spaniards" on rough mountainous terrain. The letter offering Gypsy to New York-based Cuban insurgents ended with, "If Hannibal found elephants useful in battle, why should not Gomez conquer with Gypsy?"

Gypsy remained in the United States, however, and continued to perform in circuses. She still performed beautifully and willingly, but balked at public parades and often became difficult in her enclosure. One day, however, her luck ran out.

During a parade through Valdosta, Georgia in November 1902, Gypsy took a wrong turn somewhere along the route. Her trainer James O'Rourke was mounted on her back, but had been drinking heavily for the previous 24 hours. Somehow he veered away from the main parade and ended up on a side street. As the crowds shouted that the parade was that-a-way, O'Rourke tried to turn Gypsy, then promptly fell off.

As O'Rourke lay on the ground, Gypsy paused, as though waiting for him to remount. Suddenly, however, she knelt on top of him, crushing every bone in his body. She then rolled him for a distance of about fifty metres with her trunk.

As people tried to corral Gypsy, she got more and more agitated, smashing walls, tossing bricks into the air, and even grabbing a lighting pole in her trunk and shaking it until lights flew everywhere. Eventually she was drawn into a public park, where Police Chief Calvin Dampier took aim with his rifle. Although he had hit her three times, it was only enough to madden Gypsy even more. She took off again, but was eventually cornered a short time later. This time it took only one shot to end her life.

There isn't any information about why Gypsy had become so mean. Training methods were barbaric for elephants back then, so Gypsy may have simply decided that humans were the enemy. She may have had an untreated injury or infection that caused enough pain to madden her. Renowned for her great intelligence, Gypsy may also have just been too sensitive by nature to tolerate the injustice of life in a turn-of-the-century circus. Then again, she may simply have been angry by nature.

Gypsy (standing) with a younger elephant and her
trainer, Fatty Shea, 1894.
Source: http://raycityhistory.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/
bloody-history-of-gypsy-the-elephant/

To Support Elephant Welfare

World Wildlife Fund

World Society for the Protection of Animals

Performing Animal Welfare Society

Zoocheck

Bring the Elephant Home

African Wildlife Foundation

Elephants Without Borders 

Save the Elephants

International Elephant Foundation Elephant's World (Thailand) 

David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Elephant Nature Park (Thailand)

Wildlife Trust of India

Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary (Thailand)
Wildlife SOS (India)  
The Elephant Sanctuary (Tennessee, U.S.A.)

Fauna & Flora International