The “Ames Room” is known for its noticeable deception of the dimension’s constancy. Out of a specified perspective, two persons with the same height seem different sized. The reason for this optical illusion is in the construction of the rear wall and the window, which let the room appears normal and rectangular. But in real the left edge is almost twice as far off from the eye of the viewer as the right.
On the screen you can assemble given pictures with the mouse to an image sequence. You can play it by selectable speed.
How hard it can actually be to differentiate two colours! Two similar colours (here grey) seem identic, as long as the transition is covered. The difference comes to light, when the border between the two areas is visible.
A balancer joist invites, to challenge your balance senses.
Here, your flair of your feet is in demand! For the most of us barefoot walking is often missed out.
When we see a sequence of graphics, we can not see each picture, when the speed is to high. We see a flowing movement. For this purpose, it is important to have a clear separation of the images.
In this room occurs a bizarre view. You can see only the head from the other people around you- on the salver, served for the meal!
We scarcely can watch the rotation of a one coloured circle disk around its centre, because it looks the same in each position. In a square we recognize such a rotation by the motions of the rand and assume, because of our experiences, that the inner moves with it. When you hide the rand partially, the visible fragments are not enough for our vision system to get the rotation of a square.
Here you can learn an old encryption method- easy and effective.
Our visual system always tries to determine the true colours of objects, independent of the colour of light, by “subtracting“ the latter from perception - as cameras do with “white balance”. In case the light source has more than one colour, our visual system is overextended. White and blue or green lights can be switched on over a white surface. When holding a hand few centimetres over the surface, it casts two shadows – one for each light. Astoundingly, a purple shadow appears where the green light is detained but the white one still shines! The combination of blue and white creates a yellow shadow.
A number of experiments inside the cabin make the visitor impressive aware of how easily our sense of balance can be fooled by our vision system: balls are seeming to roll upward, a free movable rod apparently hangs lopsided down, a chair with a complete horizontal seating surface seems to be strongly inclined.
Human perceive sizes not absolutely, more relatively. They are always set in relation to neighboured dimensions. In “Equal and Unequal” the greater length of the outer bow is often misunderstood.
The task is to place the arrow in a distance from 30cm, 50cm and 100cm from the starting point. By pushing the button, you can see the right distance.
Sometimes it is hard to estimate distances right, because neighboured distances are noticed to. The elastic strap over the blue trapezoid has to be pulled to the lower edge, so the strap sections left and right from the finger are equal. The skewness of the trapezoid irritates enormous, so you guess most times totally wrong.
By hitting the flats filled with blue water, different high tones are created which the visitor can compare. Is there a tone that sounds most like the color blue? Whether it sounds rather high or low can be found out here.
Who sticks his head into the erosion of the boiler and bumbles in different voices, finds his sound, which causes resonance and harmonic vibration from had to foot. Thereby you dive into your own closed world.
Can a straight rod rotate around his axis and pass a curved slit? It looks like it cannot, but it actually passes easy and with drive! Thus, it is fixed oblique, the rod ends are further from the axis of rotation, than from the middle of the bar. That means, that the slit ends have to be further from the rotation axis, than the middle of the slit- therefore the curved form!
Various pairs of eyes look contrary to you. Many of them are known immediately or can be called. And exactly this is the challenge in this exhibit. Each pair of eyes has to be sorted to a character.
Our vision system is exercised to gather three-dimensional information out of two dimensional images. The “Impossible E” exists out of two partial pictures: the reflection of the three dimensional “E” and the reflection of the four horizontally boards. Although they fit together by colour, they reveal no consistent overall picture, because the same black colour stands for a gap in the one picture and for a black area in the other.
From the outside relative inconspicuous, the strap wood offers a corporeal impressive experience. You can feel the impression of the pressure by the heaviness of the straps on your whole body.
The kids mangle gives the chance to improve the self- perception or just the opportunity to play.It effects a positive and pleasant self- assessment sensation and has a high invitation character.
Similar to a kaleidoscope you can create limitless patterns with the mirror book- but here it can be viewed from everyone standing around! The mirror images can vary by smallest changes by opening the “book”, as well as selection and position of the particles.
Sundry boards with “curious” images on it can be placed around a cylinder or caper shaped mirror columns and so, it is exempt of its unrecognizable condition. Out of distorted images develop equalized images and familiar appearances.
Everything has two sides, right? Not at all. The Möbius strip proves the opposite. Here a magnetic car drives on the strip from the inside to the outside and vice versa, without withdrawing. You can form easily a model, by twisting a piece of paper and connecting the paper ends, so it occurs a ribbon.
In those ten protected flacons are different flavours. A refreshment should happen every three months, thereby you can change the flavours.
Amixtureof embossed printing and the game “Mix Max”! How sensible are your fingers? Can they recognize imprints easily?
On the screen are two red disks contributed, which are moving with an adjustable speed from the upper screen edges to the edges towards them. When they meet in the middle, they seem to move one above the other. But rungs out a “Pling” in this moment the situation is interpreted as a clash with rebound. In percipience our senses work together. When the ear hears a crash, our eye sees one too.
Why not looking each other deep in the eye? The pupil determines the amount of lightning, which falls in our eye. It sets itself automatically in dependence to the brightness, like an automatically aperture from a camera. The brightness of a lamp can be set with the controller and the changes in the eye can be observed in a magnifying mirror.
By placing paint plates on the vinal turntable, which is rotated slowly by hand, you can compose your own melodies. Depending on the rotation speed, color and distance of the circles, the melody changes.
In this attractive exhibit old and young can form ball valve like they want to, which can be always formed into new ways for the rolling disks.
An old child`s play, the “Thaumatrop” is the underlying idea of this exhibit. Here, the so-called “wonder disk” is moved into rotation.
The three rotating disks show, how easily our sense of sight can be deceived. The black and the white rings seem three dimensional- like you would look into a tunnel.
An old child`s play, the “Thaumatrop” is the underlying idea of this exhibit. Here, the so-called “wonder disk” is moved into rotation.
Touch the plates from different materials and feel the temperatures!
Depending on where you place the second magnetic figure in the image, the figure seems bigger or smaller as the one in the foreground. Firstly, our eye has the comparison because of the perspectival drawing, on the other hand we have experienced, that things are getting smaller with distance.
A lopsided frame out of random connected, thin stainless- steel rods looks similar to a chair! Just from one point and from a special height you can recognize the form of a straight chair.
To let out fuming rings- many smokers impress their fellow humans while doing that. In this exhibit everyone has the ability, to create fuming rings and afterwards watching them before a black background.
Each sense experience, each approach is a cautious approach. A highlight: Literally you can bring light in the dark after your tactical experience and prove your solution.
Under the grope way are sundry objects installed. Here you focus on your sense of touch: Which form and surface has the object? How soft is it and how does it feel? Which material can you recognize on your fingers?
A rotation on the board actuates a mixture of two different coloured sands, thus it ripples, pulsating like the blood in the veins and heart, through fine hopper openings. Mountains and valleys infused with periodic, two coloured stratifications on the one side and ever- increasing erosions on the other side.
The most people know those pictures for sure, which follow you while passing. In this exhibit it seems, that the whole head is moving in the direction of the passing people.
How deep is the room? Or better said, the shaft!
Here you can create known sounds and listen to them - maybe with closed eyes, so your feelings and your concentration are higher.
When you first take a small and after a bigger bottle in your hand, the smaller one seems a lot heavier. But the scale shows, that both bottles are the same weight. Here it gets clear, that our perception connects our purpose sensation with our previous experiences.
You try to stand on one leg with the distance of a half metre before the wobbling wall! To hold the balance without the support of the other leg is a real challenge! For our orientation in a room is from a big meaning as well as our sense of sight.
