Curatorial Statement

Ebbinghaus's Galaxy is a re-imagining of the famous Ebbinghaus illusion in a planetary setting. The Ebbinghaus illusion is known as a static image of two sets of circles; one circle of a set size surrounded by bigger circles, and another circle of the same set size surrounded by smaller circles. Because of relative perception, the circle surrounded by bigger circles appears to be bigger, when it is in fact the same size as the other circle. Ebbinghaus's Galaxy animates this illusion and replaces the circles with planets and moons. The outer circles rotate and continuously vary in size to emphasize the effect of the illusion. A short audio loop adds to the space atmosphere by providing a sense of mystery and exploration.

Intention

The intention is to apply the Ebbinghaus illusion in another setting that may commonly involve circles in order to allow people to understand the illusion better and immerse themselves in the audiovisual experience we create. We also hope to make the illusion easier to understand by emphasizing the only difference between the two sets of circles in the illusion.

Product

Perceptual Illusion

The illusion is called the Ebbinghaus Illusion. Two center circles of equal size are surrounded by circles of the same size, but the left outer circles are bigger/smaller than the right outer circles. The effect is that people perceive the center circle with the smaller orbiting circles to be bigger than the other circle of the same size.

The illusion plays with the idea of relative perception. Because one circle is surrounded by larger circles than the other, it seems as if that circle is also larger than the other circle, but in reality, they are both of the same size. The illusion’s effectiveness obviously depends on the sizes of the surrounding objects, but the distances between each of the circles also factor into the illusion. It has been hypothesized that the illusion is related to different processing pathways for perception and action, though exactly how is under debate.

Context

Outside of basic images showing the Ebbinghaus illusion, our outcome was greatly influenced by a video demonstrating the illusion with moving circles. In it, the effect appears to be stronger when the central circle moves across the screen with expanding and contracting surrounding circles. Our product incorporates this idea and moves a series of Ebbinghaus circles across the screen, hopefully achieving the same magnified effect. To further unify the audio and visual components, we applied a space theme, with the circles as planets against a star field background.

In the illusion, the only difference between the two sets of circles are the sizes of the outer circles. The size of the inner circles remain the same. To emphasize that difference, we animated only variations of the sizes of the outer circles to show how our perceptions change because of relative size.

Process

Audio (Vicki)

At first, I tried to create ambient noise, because when I think of space I think of a vast nothingness or emptiness. I initially recorded several short guitar plucks and used the Paulstretch effect in Audacity to make each note last longer and add ambiance to the notes. I chose two of the notes and placed them next to each other to loop. However, once I saw the animation, the atmosphere of the animation didn't seem to work well with the audio, so instead I tried to go for a more mysterious feel by creating a simple tune. While before I had thought a slower and more atmospheric approach would be best, I realized that with the continuous movements of the circles, something with more notes and a faster tempo might go better with the visual part. I based the tune on the C minor arpeggio because minor chords are known to sound more melancholy and somber than major chords. I imported the loop to Audacity and used various effects such as the equalizer, phaser, and tremolo to make the tune sound more mysterious and varying in amplitude. I recorded a short wind sound and imported that as another track because the idea of planets moving through space make me think of motion and wind.

Visual (Dominic & Justice)

For the visual component, we began by researching basic examples of the Ebbinghaus effect, during which we came across a video showing the illusion applied to dynamic objects. The effect seemed amplified by certain kinds of motion, so we set out to replicate this. We began by creating all of the objects, then applying movement scripts that would cause them to contract, expand, rotate, and revolve. After tweaking parameters such as rotation and revolution speed to maximize the illusory effect, we further adjusted the scene to make it loop seamlessly.

After both components were completed, we used Quicktime to record the visuals, then merged the two with iMovie and exported the completed product to Vine.

This youtube video shows one of our first attempts with this. We used a texture different than the moon one we found, we did not yet have the rotation implemented for the orbiting masses, the starry space did not have much depth to it, and the start and stop frames did not match up.

After we fixed it, we recorded the video and put both components into iMovie. When playing the scene back in the video editor, it would loop flawlessly. However, upon saving the file, iMovie decided to add one freeze frame at the very beginning which we could not get rid of. This resulted in the vine below. We fixed this by saving a file that played the scene twice. We transferred the video to an iPhone where we cut out the first scene with the added freeze frame in order to create the seamless loop that we have. (We cut out the first scene by finding the start frame of the second scene using a finger.)

Critique

Our inner critics are satisfied with the outcome. The audio and visual components loop seamlessly. The artistic nature of the product is enhanced by the parallax scrolling background, which adds a sense of distance, as if staring into the depths of space. Likewise, all components, from the audio and sound effects to the stars and textures, fit into the space theme.

The illusion is also quite apparent, though its effectiveness seems to be diminished by the video's low framerate. Still, the central circles appear to change in size as the surrounding ones expand and contract. The contrasting colors also helps draw the viewers attention towards the central circles and the illusion itself.

The quality of the audio seems to have deteriorated from the original and seem to fade in and out when the loop starts and ends. This was not an intended effect and emphasizes that it is in a loop and not endless, which takes away from the immersive experience. Also, the wind recording seems to overpower the rest of the audio in volume and only appear in the middle of the audio, whereas it should be continuous and mostly in the background.

Reflection

We learned a lot regarding the production of a multimedia projects, gaining experience in the tools used to create each component, as well as the tools to combine and present them effectively. We were also able to apply the research and composition skills we learned in the past few weeks through labs and assignments. Through our research, we also learned about the Ebbinghaus illusion, using the information we found on its parameters and effects to enhance the illusion.

If we were to repeat the project, we would have spent more time looking into different ways to merge and present the final product, since we seemed to have lost some frames in the process. We could also adjust the scene's appearance by tweaking lighting, textures, movement speeds, etc. With more time, we would also research more auditory and visual illusions that we could formally include in the video. For example, the parallax we have already incorporated could potentially be adjusted to provide additional illusory effects in anther dimension. The audio could also have used more refining to make the looping sound more smooth and not fade in and out.

Attribution

Ebbinghaus illusion (New World Encyclopedia)

The Dynamic Ebbinghaus

Star Space