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Frank Force’s Dual Axis took first place in the 2019 Best Illusion of the Year contest: a knot-like shape appears to rotate around two axes at once. The second- and third-place entries explore perceived color and the influence of surrounding motion. These are the contest’s award winners, not an objective ranking of every illusion made or published that year.
How the 2019 contest chose its winners
The Best Illusion of the Year contest celebrates perception. The Neural Correlate Society describes an illusion as a perceptual experience that does not match physical reality. According to the contest’s judging process, a panel selects ten finalists, who present at a gala; attendees then vote for first, second, and third place. The results below reflect that process.
The 2019 top three illusions
First place: Dual Axis
Game developer Frank Force’s animation presents a knot-like form that seems to rotate around horizontal and vertical axes simultaneously. The illusion plays with how viewers interpret ambiguous motion and form: the image can seem like a three-dimensional object turning, even though the animation is not a physical object moving in three dimensions.
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New Atlas reported that Force linked the construction to a Lissajous curve. In a quotation reproduced by New Atlas from an interview with Scientific American, Force said the underlying equations are ambiguous about rotation, while the mind settles on an interpretation of the direction and axis. That is his account of the effect, not proof of one definitive explanation for how every viewer perceives it. New Atlas’s December 29, 2019 roundup reports the result and description.
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Second place: Change the Color
This entry plays on the relationship between perceived motion and perceived color. Dots that initially appear red and green as they move vertically seem yellow when viewers interpret their motion as horizontal. The striking point is that the apparent color changes with the way the movement is seen.
Third place: Rotating Circles
Here, surrounding circles affect how viewers interpret the rotation of a particular circle. The creators suggest that the effect may have implications for how people judge other moving objects; that is their proposed significance, rather than established evidence about real-world judgments.
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Other finalists: brightness and viewpoint
Magic Tic-Tac-Toe
The contest roundup also features Magic Tic-Tac-Toe. Its official finalist description discusses lateral inhibition, which enhances the contrast of an object’s outline against its background. When brightness boundaries are concealed, observers lose cues associated with that effect and become less able to see brightness variations.
Ambiguous Cardboard Arrows
Matt Pritchard’s Ambiguous Cardboard Arrows is a hands-on example rather than an animated screen illusion. A cut-up cardboard tube appears to point one way from one viewpoint and the opposite way from another—or in a mirror. The official finalist entry describes the demonstration.
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Chunder Thunder
Chunder Thunder is another finalist included in New Atlas’s roundup. The available contest coverage identifies it as part of the selection, but does not provide enough detail here to explain its perceptual effect further.
What makes these illusions different?
| Entry | Main perceptual feature | What changes the impression |
|---|---|---|
| Dual Axis | Form and motion | How the viewer interprets the shape’s rotation |
| Change the Color | Color and motion | Whether the dots’ movement is interpreted as vertical or horizontal |
| Rotating Circles | Motion | The rotation of surrounding circles |
| Magic Tic-Tac-Toe | Brightness and contrast | Whether brightness boundaries remain visible |
| Ambiguous Cardboard Arrows | Form and viewpoint | The viewing angle or reflection in a mirror |
These are useful ways to compare the entries, not the contest’s official judging criteria. Together, they show how a visual impression can shift when motion, context, boundaries, or viewpoint changes.
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Why the contest calls them illusions
The Neural Correlate Society’s mission and definition frame the contest around perception, not supernatural effects: an illusion is a perceived experience that differs from physical reality. The finalist examples make that idea tangible, from a shape that seems to turn on two axes to a cardboard arrow whose apparent direction changes with viewpoint.
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