Page 99 - Between light and shade

Epilogue

Shade and transparency are sometimes diffuse,
divided or complete or even the sources of optical
illusions 1.

When diffuse, they temper the drawbacks of
light that is too bright or reflections (and soften
colours), just as sound absorbing materials do for
noise that is too loud and for echoes.

When divided, by the slow movement of
clouds, rain or snow, the shimmering of water
or the foliage of a tree, they track the passage
of time.

They are different again under the influence
of a point source of light, vibrant when exposed

1 We are permanently subject to them. New illusions are regu-
larly discovered like, in 2011, the “Flashed Face Distortion
Effect” discovered by Sean Murphy, a psychology student at
the University of Queensland in Australia (see also “Optical
Illusions” on Wikipedia). Therefore, there is still so much to
discover on a metric scale as there is on the level of the atom
or the cosmos.
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