The Best Illusion of the Year Contest is an annual recognition of the world's illusion creators awarded by the Neural Correlate Society. The contest was created in 2005 by professors Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik as part of the European conference on Visual Perception in La Coruna, Spain. It has since transitioned to an online contest where everyone in the world is invited to submit illusions and vote for the winner.
The contest decides on the most impressive perceptual or cognitive illusion of the year (unpublished, or published no earlier than the year prior to the most recent competition). An illusion is a perceptual or cognitive experience that does not match the physical reality (e.g. the perception of motion where no such motion physically exists).
As human experience is generated indirectly by brain mechanisms that interact with the physical reality, the study of illusions offers insight into the neural bases of perception and cognition. The community includes neuroscientists, ophthalmologists, neurologists, and visual artists that create illusions to help discover the neural underpinnings of illusory perception.
The Best Illusion of the Year Contest consists of three stages: submission, initial review, and voting of winners. The initial review is conducted by a panel of judges who are world experts in the science, art, and science education. The judge panel narrows the submissions to the Top Ten finalists, and viewers from all over the world can vote for the winner online. The top three winners receive cash awards.
Neural Correlate Society
The Neural Correlate Society (NCS) is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization that promotes research into the neural basis of perception and cognition. The organization serves a community of neuroscientists, ophthalmologists, neurologists, and artists who use a variety of methods to help discover the underpinnings of the human experience.
The NCS hosts a variety of events, including the Best Illusion of the Year Contest, that highlight important new discoveries to the public.
Champions of Illusion
The Illusions
Award recipients
The following table details the first, second, and third place recipients from each year of the contest since its inception.
Year First place Second place Third place 2005 Title: Motion Illusion Building BlocksCreated by: Arthur Shapiro & Justin Charles Title: Two-Stroke Apparent MotionCreated by: George Mather Title: Elusive ArchCreated by: Dejan Todorović 2006 Title: The Freezing Rotation IllusionCreated by: Max Dürsteler Title: The Infinite Regression IllusionCreated by: Peter Tse Title:The Bar-Cross-Ellipse IllusionCreated by: Gideon Caplovitz & Peter Tse 2007 Title: The Leaning Tower IllusionCreated by: Frederick Kingdom, Ali Yoonessi, & Elena Gheorghiu Title: The Illusory Contoured Tilting PyramidCreated by: Pietro Guardini & Luciano Gamberini Title: Where Has All the Motion Gone?Created by: Arthur Shapiro & Emily Knight 2008 Title: Filling in the Afterimage After the ImageCreated by: Rob van Lier & Mark Vergeer Title: Ghostly GazeCreated by: Rob Jenkins Title: Rolling Eyes on a Hollow MaskCreated by: Thomas Papathomas 2009 Title: The Break of the CurveballCreated by: Arthur Shapiro, Zhong-Lin Lu, Emily Knight, & Robert Ennis Title: Color Dove IllusionCreated by: Yuval Barkan & Hedva Spitzer Title: The Illusion of SexCreated by: Richard Russell 2010 Title: Impossible Motion: Magnet SlopesCreated by: Kokichi Sugihara Title: Counter-Intuitive Illusory ContoursCreated by: Bart Anderson Title: Two Sinusoids: 6-1 PerceptionsCreated by: Jan Kremlacek 2011 Title: Silencing Awareness of Change by Background InformationCreated by: Jordan Suchow & George Alvarez Title: Grouping by ContrastCreated by: Erica Dixon, Arthur Shapiro, & Kai Hamburger Title: The Loch Ness AftereffectCreated by: Mark Wexler 2012 Title: The Disappearing Hand TrickCreated by: Roger Newport, Helen Gilpin, & Catherine Preston Title: When Pretty Girls Turn Ugly: The Flashed Face Distortion EffectCreated by: Jason Tangen, Sean Murphy, & Matthew Thompson Title: Color Wagon WheelCreated by: Arthur Shapiro, William Kistler, & Alex Rose-Henig 2013 Title: Rotation Generated by TranslationCreated by: Jun Ono, Akiyasu Tomoeda, & Kokichi Sugihara Title: Tusi or not TusiCreated by: Arthur Shapiro & Alex Rose-Henig Title: Through the Eyes of GiantsCreated by: Arash Afraz & Ken Nakayama 2014 Title: The Dynamic EbbinghausCreated by: Christopher D. Blair, Gideon P. Caplovitz, and Ryan E.B. Mruczek Title: Flexible ColorsCreated by: Mark Vergeer, Stuart Anstis, and Rob van Lier Title: A Turn in the RoadCreated by: Kimberley D. Orsten & James R. Pomerantz 2015 Title: Splitting ColorsCreated by: Mark Vergeer Title: Ambiguous Garage RoofCreated by: Kokichi Sugihara Title: The Day it Rained on LowryCreated by: Michael Pickard 2016 Title: Motion Integration Unleashed: New Tricks for an Old Dog Created by: Mathew T. Harrison and Gideon P. CaplovitzTitle: Ambiguous Cylinder Illusion Created by: Kokichi SugiharaTitle: Silhouette ZoetropeCreated by: Christine Veras 2017 Title: Shape from motion only Created by: Hedva Spitzer, Dana Tearosh, Niv WeismanTitle: Skye Blue Café Wall Illusion Created by: Victoria SkyeTitle: Dynamic Müller-Lyer Illusion Created by: Gianni A. Sarcone 2018 Title: Triply Ambiguous Object Created by: Kokichi SugiharaTitle: Movement Illusion with a Twist Created by: David Phillips, Priscilla Heard and Christopher TylerTitle: The Worm’s Eye View Illusion Created by: Michael Pickard and Gurpreet Singh 2019 Title: Dual Axis Illusion Created by: Frank ForceTitle: Change the Color Created by: Haruaki FukudaTitle: The Rotating Circles Illusion Created by: Ryan E.B. Mruczek and Gideon Paul Caplovitz 2020 Title: 3D Schröder Staircase Created by: Kokichi SugiharaTitle: The Real Thing?? Created by: Matt Pritchard Title: Impossible grid typography Created by: Daniël Maarleveld 2021 Title: The Phantom Queen Created by: Matt PritchardTitle: The Changing Room Illusion Created by: Michael A. CohenTitle: The Double Ring Illusion Created by: Dawei Bai & Brent Strickland 2023 Title: Platform 9 3/4s Created by: Matt Pritchard Title: Tower of Cubes? Created by: John Salmon Title: Cornelia Created by: Wendy van Boxtel 2024 Title: The Static Spin Created by: Saleeta Qadir and Bernhard EggerTitle: Dollusion Created by: Duška MilosavljevićTitle: Tri-form Prism Created by: Hiroaki Hamanaka, Ryohei Miki, Kyota Yamamoto
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