Optical illusion cartoon
Impossible object cartoon
The impossible cube as flat pack furniture
An illustration showing someone assembling a piece of flat pack furniture, and finding that in the process he’s accidentally constructed an impossible cube (or irrational cube).
An impossible cube is an optical illusion in which a solid framework of bars that form a cube have their appearance manipulated so that beams at the back seem to cross in front of beams at the front and vise versa. The impossible cube was used by M C Escher.
(Because it’s a deliberate visual manipulation I’m not sure that the impossible cube is really an optical illusion in the strictest sense. In real optical illusions the eye and brain misinterpret an image because they can’t analyse them properly, such as the Necker cube, with no trickery involved)
A cartoon about optical illusions, visual ambiguity, irrational cube, ikea, false perspective, impossible shapes
Original version drawn: 2009
Cartoon reference number: cub710
