Friday 13 November 2009

Cocoa, art and irony

From the nation that brought you spherical houses comes another tasty slice of strangeness in the shape of the Droste Effect:

The Droste effect is a Dutch term for a specific type of recursive picture.

An image exhibiting the Droste effect depicts a smaller version of the image within itself in a recursive manner.

In theory, the picture in picture effect continues deeper into the picture ad infinitum, but it really only goes as far as the image resolution will allow while still being visible, but it still has the feeling of being never ending....

The effect is named after a particular image that appeared in various forms on the tins and boxes of Droste cocoa powder, one of the main Dutch brands.

It displays a nurse carrying a serving tray with a cup of hot chocolate and a box of Droste cocoa depicting the same image...

The brand’s effect, maintained for decades, became a household notion. Reportedly, poet and columnist Nico Scheepmaker introduced wider usage of the term in the late 1970’s

In the 1950’s, one of the famous graphic artisits Maurits Cornelis Escher.C. Escher took the Droste effect to another level with his incredible drawings, and mapped images to a spiral.


Click here for images of the Droste Effect in action.

Meanwhile, breaking news from the World Memory Championships, being held in London. According to a report overheard on the BBC World Service, one of the British contenders for the title of World Memory Champion always wears a lucky hat during memory competitions. Sadly, he forgot to bring it along this year...

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