Eyes, Lies + Illusions

Eyes, Lies and Illusions

I really like illusions and pictures that make you think I stare at them for ages, The art of looking sideways is my favorite book it has quote from philosophers artists and graphic designers. As well as all the crazy theories there is a section on illusions. This is where I first became interested in illusions. I was really looking forward to The London trip.
I remember getting up after little sleep and meeting Phil for the bus, He was as bad as me so we sat most of the way there trying to soba up. The bus journey was an illusion, once I was there I was very impressed with the exhibition. I own one those trippy mind warp posters which used to be on my ceiling. if you look up and down the poster these circles begin to spin the more your eyes get distracted to the next circle the more the circles appear to spin around, so seeing where the ideas for illusions came from was amazing. I'm also really interested in the animations and where the idea for moving image emerged. One of the biggest influences to these hypnotic illusions and moving image was a man called...

Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès
Méliés was born 6th December 1861 in a time when animation and film had not been recognized. He moved to London in 1884 where he opened a shoe company He worked there for many years before he found his love for moving images. He began to take trips to the theatre and commented on how the illusions on show really began to inspire him. He was 22 Years old when he saw a stage go in to complete darkness and watched skeletons and limbs dancing across the stage. It was illusions like this which really grabbed hold of Méliés and helped him on his way to become the great animator. He then started going to lessons at a magician shop, He started small shows in front of family and friends then progressing on to shows in a small theatre. He produced puppets and comic operas in short performances .

Méliés finally sold his shoe companies and bought the Robert-Houdin theatre. Houdin had been a brilliant magician and was admired by Méliés. He refurbished the theatre and opened it to the public. He put on a film called The Golden Cage in 1897 which convinced him to start working on films. Between 1905 and 1907, Méliés put on four spectacular films before running out of money forcing him to sell his much loved theatre. 1902 saw the best of Méliés with some stunning films and new illusions. The film Le Voyage Dans La Lune was one his most famous films. He made it look like men had gone to the moon on a mission. He used illusions to make the audience think the actors where really traveling in to space. Another new film called Le Mélomane, had Méliés himself acting as a music teacher. He appeared to take off his head several times before throwing them onto a music sheet. This looked so real and had audiences wondering how this wonderful magician was performing this trick. In 1909 he was made president of Congress International des Editeurs du Film where he met with major film representatives. Méliés had emerged as a first generation film maker and began to lead the way in the film industry