Images

Chorus Girl Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscopic dance number by Busby Berkeley in his prime. 42nd Street, 1933.

This image is of interest because it is like a Tibetan mandala made of women in puffy white coats that also describes the shape and function of the eye, the movement of water rippling outward, and many other classical wave formations. The juxtaposition of the inside-ring knees pointing counter-clockwise with the outside-ring knees pointed clockwise creates a slight rotational illusion (Pinna illusion) when focusing on the image and moving the head forward and back. The shape is also fractal in that it can replicate itself outward or inward in infinitely expanding or diminishing circles. 48 dancers in matching suits were needed to complete this pattern; 16 on the inside ring and 32 on the outside ring, which is 2 to the power of 4 and 5 respectively, commonly used bit lengths in computing. Further rings would be completed along this exponentially fixed algorithm. All of these characteristics classify this image as psychedelia.

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Notes and References

[1] Pinna, Baingio, 'Pinna Illusion'. Scholarpedia, 4(2):6656, 2009.

Keywords: mandala, kaleidoscope, pinna illusion