Have you seen this illustration? According to Wikipedia, “Friedrich Schumann is often credited with the discovery of illusory contours around the beginning of the twentieth century, however illusory contours are present in art dating to the Middle Ages. They evoke the perception of an edge without a luminance or color change across that edge. Illusory brightness and depth ordering frequently accompany illusory contours. It’s odd, but when I first Googled Friedrich’s name, the first hit was for a serial killer of the same name. I wonder if that had any impact on either one of them turning out as they did? In the graphic above, you ‘see’ a white triangle between the three black Vs and the Pacman-like almost circles. However, our minds fill…
