Washington Irving – Palomides

Posted by Fabio 19 November 2013

I believe this to be the world’s first autostereogram music video. Stereograms are an old technique that had a recent resurgence in shopping precincts during the 90s. They are images which can achieve a 3D effect when viewed a certain way. You don’t need any special lenses or a fancy television, simply defocus your eyes and look ‘through’ the image.

I’m very happy with how the effect translates to video and I’m thankful to Washington Irving for allowing me to do such a wild experiment with their track. I don’t believe it’s been done before.

The video isn’t as difficult to see as some ‘Magic Eye’ pictures from the past so it’s worth trying even if you’ve had bad luck in viewing them before. It may help to sit farther back from the screen or reduce the size of the video window. As long as you have two functional eyeballs and a moderate attention span, you’ll be able to see this. It works thanks to the horizontal repetition. Each of your eyes are looking at a different repeated element but your brain sees them as the same thing. Don’t cross your eyes, look straight ahead (through the image) as though you’re focusing on the horizon. It may help to pause the video if you lose the effect and use the dots at the beginning to calibrate your eyes. You may have encountered this phenomenon while observing a chain link fence or while looking at patterned wallpaper. That’s pretty much all I did before YouTube was invented._James Houston

www.washingtonirvingband.com
www.1030.co.uk