I've recently gotten a half-baked idea stuck in my head. One that if you were to see an image (of anything) that was blatantly impossible, but done with sufficient artistry and skill, it might trigger in the viewer something akin to (or opposite of) the uncanny valley effect (which is limited to the human form, but this isn't in case you were wondering what my point was).

Ideas? Comments? Examples?

not quite sure what you're onto here, doug. you talking about something like the 3d optical illusions, like the staircase around the inside of a room that tricks the eye into a sort of infinite loop illusion? i mean, would that be an example of what you're after here?

and just as a side note, wouldnt that be an interesting study in a 3d program or an anaglyph ;)

I'm thinking loops, but not necessarily optical illusions. More along the lines of "it can't exist, but there it is". A kind of visual cognitive dissonance. But to work the representation would have to be absolutely realistic.

Oh, and before we start getting posts of 50-pound cats and babies holding cars over their heads, I'm talking about things so outside of the possible that they don't even register as hoaxes. This is why I posted this in Synthetic Imaging, even though I suppose they could be created in any app by a sufficiently skill artist.

Here are two really bad examples. They're bad because they aren't synthetic, they really exist. But in both instances, the very first time I saw them (different than these two examples, but you'll get the idea) I said to myself "no, that can't exist, that must be fake, but it obviously isn't", and my teenage mind was blown.

The first is a carving from a single, unbroken piece of ivory:
http://www.mannersism.net/images/IvoryBall_S.jpg
(I later found out this is not only possible, it's approaching trivial)

The second is of a natural defense mechanism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCgtYWUybIE

I guess it's akin to "amazement", only that term has gotten watered down so much it's about useless. I also like "fascinating", in it's original sense: something you can't look away from

ah, ok. i get it. so, a bald donald trump would qualify ;)

love the octopus one.

How about the concept that millions of the stars we see each night are so far away that they burned out eons ago and we are just now receiving the light from them??

Steve C.

steve, yes. maybe i shld post that NASA image taken with the Hubble telescope of the furtherest look outwards ever seen by man. this one image has something like 10,000 galaxies within. it was taken in an area of space that if you held a quarter up to the sky at arm's length, that would be the area of space covered. it was taken over a period of 30 days, where, when the Hubble was pointed at the exact same spot each day, the shutter would open for a brief period of time for additional exposure in order to capture that very faint light. so, how's that for impossible/impressive?

but, since the file is something like 92 megs, i guess it'll have to wait :)