2.5 dimensional optical illusion bookshelf

Designer Bjørn Jørund Blikstad created these "2.5 dimensional" wall-hung shelves that combine real depth with optical illusions to bend your brain and hold your stuff.

Second and a Half Dimension Shelves

• [Hools Verne]

  Damn that’s cool.

• [Dan]

  Yeah… I can just see me setting my morning cup of coffee on that thing, and when I go to take a sip, I collapse on the floor in a drooling heap of brain-shattered confusion.

  Still, it’s pretty slick.

• [Anonymous]

  I can’t figure out how to look at these… to the point where I’m feeling a little sick to my stomach. Seriously. What parts are real?

• [woid]

  Wow, this is brilliant! It’s just one simple module in five different colors, but then there’s that other dimension… As Soupy used to say, your brains’ll fall out.

  It doesn’t seem to be a product for sale. It should be, yes?

• [nicleT]

  A tribute to Victor Vasarely !

• [PaulR]

  I used to work in a photo lab in Montreal in the late eighties. One of the customers, artist Serge Tousignant, was working on a series of large photographs which combining drawings, photos, shadows and illusions in a manner similar to Mr. Blikstad’s shelves – he was getting the photos printed at the lab. It was always exciting to see his work on the spotting table.

  What you saw in this series changed depending on the distance from the photograph. From about 5 meters away, you might see a standard textbook still life. From about 1 meter away, you saw all the illusions: shadows that were really drawings of shadows, tables that were only half a table, etc.

  Man, what I would have given so as to not be as poor as I was at the time, just so I could afford one of Mr. Tousignant’s works!

  I can’t find any of that particular series’ images on the ‘Net. But I did find a few that would give some its flavour:

  L’équilibriste (1991) [The balancing artist]
  http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/artwork_zoom_f.jsp?mkey=94139

  R̩flexion int̩rieure tri-modulaire (1982 Р1983) [Tri-modular interior reflection]
  http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/artwork_zoom_f.jsp?mkey=92982

  Dessin solaire n° 25 (1980) [Solar drawing #25]
  http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/artwork_zoom_f.jsp?mkey=93519

  Nature morte aux balles [Still life of balls]
  http://www.ccca.ca/artists/image.html?languagePref=en&url=/c/images/big/t/tousign/tous024.jpg&cright=Serge+Tousignant&mkey=7908&link_id=51

  Thanks for the link, Cory, it reminded me of Tousignant’s work.

• [MadRat]

  You’d need to put a Q-Bert on it though.