Literature and Culture Breakfast: The Motif of Deception in Science, Art, Architecture, and Literature

How does human perception work? Goethe examines, for example, in his work "Theory of Colors" (1810), those color sensations that we know as optical illusions, for which he uses the beautiful term "eye ghosts." "You take a bright green color circle, look at it for twenty seconds, turn your gaze away, and then look at a white sheet of paper or a white wall, and then this green color circle will appear to you as a strong red afterimage. And that would then be an eye ghost." (Goethe, Theory of Colors). Already in Egyptian art, there are examples of optical illusions. This continues in antiquity, as Pliny the Elder reports, and persists to this day. Visual illusions can affect nearly all aspects of seeing. There are depth illusions, color illusions, geometric illusions, motion illusions, and more. When we notice the illusion, we are initially surprised, and then a feeling of happiness sets in. Joachim Ringelnatz describes such a moment of surprise:

In the Park
A very small deer stood by a very small tree
Still and transformed as if in a dream.
It was two minutes past eleven at night.
And then I passed by again at four in the morning,
And the animal was still dreaming.
Now I crept up quietly – I hardly breathed –
Against the wind to the tree,
And gave the deer a very small poke.
And then it was made of plaster.

Karin Schmöger, M.A., Art and Literary Historian
Course No.: 25200