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Your brain gets used to seeing familiar things in certain ways. When the brain receives a strange view of a familiar object, the consequences can be intriguing. When this picture of Michelle Obama is viewed upside down, it appears normal even though it's upside down. But when viewed right side up, some bizarre differences are immediately apparent. This activity is based on an Exploratorium exhibit called "Vanna," featuring two side-by-side images of TV personality Vanna White.
Before letting anyone see them, place the two pictures side by side on a table and position them so they are upside down to the viewer.
When you're ready, invite viewers to look at and compare the two pictures.
Finally, rotate both pictures around, and have viewers look at them right-side up.
Your viewers may or may not recognize the personality in your picture when the picture is upside down. The two upside-down views may look strange (one perhaps stranger than the other), but turn them right side up and one looks normal, while the other may look grotesque.
Since an upside-down face is not a familiar point of view, your viewers may not have noticed that one of the pictures has been altered. It’s only when the photos are turned right side up, and the view is more familiar, that you notice the real difference.
Can people recognize familiar upside-down faces? If a face is only partially rotated, does it still look strange? Find digital images showing faces of familiar personalities online or use digital images of family members and friends. Make copies of these images, alter one copy using a simple photo-editing program, and then ask people to identify the person.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Attribution: Exploratorium Teacher Institute