Tilt figure
A tilted picture or a tilted figure is an image that can lead to spontaneous changes in shape or perception . An explanation of this phenomenon can be found on the page multistable perception . Synonymous terms are inversion figure , reversion figure and envelope figure . Phenomena related to tilting figures are so-called picture puzzles and impossible figures like the Penrose triangle .
Tilting figures in Wittgenstein's philosophy
In Wittgenstein's philosophy of language, the phenomenon of changing aspects plays a central role when looking at a tilting figure. In his literary papers on the Philosophical Investigations , he often uses the rabbit and duck head as an example, but also others. His reflections examine the question of what “seeing as ...” means in contrast to “normal” seeing. His research goes so far that he extends the term to a wide variety of areas, such as B. "viewing" a piece of music as happy, sad, hectic etc.
Examples
The Necker Cube
The drawing appears to be a grid model of a cube. The two large, overlapping squares can be both the front and the back. Thus, depending on the focus, you can see a cube beginning at the bottom left, which you 1. look at from the top right or 2. that you look at from the bottom left.
The name goes back to the Swiss geologist Louis Albert Necker (1786–1861), who first described the effect of bistable perception in 1832 using crystal drawings.
From the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century, tilting figures based on the Necker cube were very popular and were also popular as joke postcards.
Crater / hill
Many viewers recognize a hill in the left partial image and a crater on the right . However, it is the same image, rotated 90 ° counterclockwise and 90 ° clockwise from the original position . The interpretation is based on the experience that objects are often illuminated from above. A light edge at the top suggests a rise, a dark edge below a shadow, caused by a sloping hill. In the second part it is exactly the opposite.
Graphic user interfaces use this effect when displaying buttons on the screen . A light upper and dark lower boundary line suggests a protruding button, while the opposite brightness ratio suggests a depressed one.
The Schröder stairs
The Schröder staircase, published in 1858 by Heinrich Georg Friedrich Schröder (1810–1885), also shows two perspective orientations. In the picture on the left, the girl is walking down the stairs, following the ball. The man seems to be floating in space. A rotation of the picture by 180 °, right part of the picture, inverts the stair perspective and now lets him climb the stairs.
Further examples
- The cup profile pattern shows either two black faces looking at each other or a cup (each in profile). This example is attributed to the Danish psychologist Edgar J. Rubin (1886–1951).
- In the picture My wife and my mother-in-law , the viewer sees either a young woman, whose face looks away from the viewer, or an old woman.
- The dancer is an animated tilting figure that can be perceived as turning left or right.
- The full moon with its dark spots (technically Maria ). Depending on the position of the head, you can either see a face or a rabbit.
Equivalent in music
- Minimal Music - here we see tilted images in the temporal structure of perception.
- In the equally tempered tuning system (well -tempered tuning ) one makes use of the ambiguity of certain chords in order to switch from one key to another as seamlessly as possible ( modulation (music) ). In theory, any chord that can be assigned to different keys is suitable for this. The musical “tilting figure” also consists of a change of perspective: If the chord initially only appears as part of the original key, it can be harmoniously “illuminated” (reinterpreted) through a suitable environment in such a way that it is suddenly understood as part of the target key.
Use in literature
In 1986 Robert Gernhardt published a volume of stories with the title Kippfigur , in which the cover illustration offers a double ambiguity: In front of the background of a cube landscape (= perspective tilting figures) sits a figure who “kippt” (drinks).
After analysis by Shlomith Rimmon, some of Henry James' narratives can be considered literary flip-flops because of their verbal and narrative ambiguity .
See also
literature
- Wilhelm Arnold, Hans Jürgen Eysenck, Richard Meili: Lexicon of Psychology . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2007, ISBN 3-86756-037-4 .
- Heinrich Georg Friedrich Schröder: About an optical inversion when looking at inverted physical images designed by optical devices . In: Annalen der Physik und Chemie , Vol. 181 (= Volume 2; Vol. 105), 1858, pp. 298–311 ( gallica.bnf.fr ).
Broadcast reports
- Martin Hubert: HIRNFORSCHUNG - Das Hypothesengenie - The brain as a prediction machine ( manuscript ) , Deutschlandradio , Wissenschaft im Brennpunkt from January 19, 2014.
Web links
- Tilt images and other visual illusions