JustDreamingAway

I just found out that I may be responsible for the confusion (or creation) of some skeptical Australian children.

About a year ago I received the above email from the producer of an Australian television show regarding a series of images that I made two years prior called Optical Illusion Illusions.

The basic premise of the image series was that I would take famous optical illusions and use Photoshop to digitally implement the perceived illusions. I created the project because I’m a pretty ardent skeptic and I noticed that when it comes to viewing optical illusions there are generally two groups of people:

1. People who are mildly impressed and then do something else.
2. People who are mildly impressed and then measure the Illusion to make sure it’s actually an illusion.

I wanted to reward the skeptics of group two and create a series of optical illusions that upon measurement would prove not to be illusions at all. I called them Optical Illusion Illusions (since they were illusions of optical illusions).

After receiving the above email from the producer of an Australian children’s program I promptly agreed to have my images appear on their show (obviously without mentioning their hidden truth). Luckily for me, the job of producing a national television show is complicated and after a few short email exchanges it became clear that the last thing on the producer’s mind was the validity of my optical illusions.

That said, I completely forgot about this whole exchange until tonight when I was clearing out old emails. After a little bit of detective work I eventually found a summary of what seems to be the episode in question.

Now, I haven’t seen the episode so I cannot verify whether or not my image made it to air. However, the twinkling possibility that my Optical Illusion Illusions may have been broadcast on Australian national television very much pleases me and unfortunately fuels my impractical desire to create more goofy projects.

I just thought that was a fun turn of events. Hopefully I helped cement the skeptical nature of a few young Australians. If not, I’ll just have to find another way to have an impact on Australia.

Don’t forget: Test everything. The world is full of jerks like me trying to trick you.