When the Wall fell, popular culture rose to a new level of social relevance. Wind of Change? More like a tsunami! The Nineties washed over the increasingly globalized media landscape in a tidal wave of catchy tunes, cult movies, TV series and show stars. FACES rolls up the decade – and publishes an encyclopaedia on the age of grunge, girl groups, GZSZ and – the magic eye.
Looks like the mandala for an LSD psycho trip. At first glance. But even without drugs, spatial motifs grow out of the freaky patterns. If you are one of the 75 percent who have it: the magic eye.
Bedroom view, fixate on one point, squint a little… Indeed! A perfectly three-dimensional shark floats in the colorful pixel salad. Experts call this an autostereogram. Multi-layered, slightly shifted, superimposed images that our brain – if it is correctly coupled with the optic nerves – spins together to form a 3D motif. Laymen have only one word for it: magic!
Tom Baccei, father of the magical tilting pictures, published his first book in the USA in 1993 via his distributor N.E.Thing. The public is amazed and buys, volumes two and three follow, translations into 25 languages, and from 1994 a Munich publishing house markets “The Magic Eye” in German. Also later special editions, for example for the Harry Potter films. After a few years, however, the world has had its fill. An anniversary band in 2018 will enchant hardcore nostalgics at best.
