[visionlist] 2nd Annual Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest will be held In Sarasota during VSS 2006!

[Susana Martinez-Conde]

***Due to popular demand: We are happy to announce the world’s 2nd annual
Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest -- 2006!!***

The 1st annual contest, held at ECVP 2005 in A Coruña, Spain, was a huge
success, which drew numerous accolades from attendees as well as
international media coverage. The First, Second and Third Prize winners were
Arthur Shapiro and Justin Charles (Bucknell University, USA), George Mather
(Sussex University, UK), and Dejan Todorovic (University of Belgrade,
Serbia).
 
In order to make the contest more easily accessible to a larger proportion
of the world’s vision science community, and to increase the public impact
of this celebration of vision research, the 2006 contest will be held in
parallel to the VSS meeting in May 2006, in Sarasota, Florida. Exact time
and date to be announced. 

Visual Illusion Contestants are invited to submit novel visual or multimodal
illusions (unpublished, or published no earlier than 2005) in standard
image, movie or html formats. An international panel of impartial judges
(TBA) will rate the submissions and narrow them to the top ten (only one
entry per author is eligible to make the TOP TEN). Then, at the Contest Gala
in Sarasota, the top ten illusionists will present their contributions and
the attendees of the event (that means you!) will vote to pick the TOP THREE
WINNERS! 

Illusions submitted to the 2005 contest can be re-submitted to the 2006
contest edition, as long as they meet the above requirements and were not
among the top ten 2005 finalists.

Submissions will be held in strict confidence by the panel of judges and the
authors/creators will retain full copyright. By submitting an entry
authors/creators are committing to allow the Neural Correlate Society
(organizers of the event) to display the illusions for advertising purposes
and for science museum exhibits and handouts worldwide. In the event that
the press may wish to publish submitted illusions in books or other formats,
permission will be sought individually from the author.

Submissions can be made to Dr. Susana Martinez-Conde (Illusion Contest
Coordinator, Neural Correlate Society) via email (smart at neuralcorrelate.com)
until February 15, 2006. Illusion submissions should come with a (no more
than) one-page description of the illusion and its theoretical underpinnings
(if known). Illusions will be rated according to: 

• Significance to our understanding of the visual system
• Simplicity of the description
• Sheer beauty
• Counterintuitive quality
• Spectacularity 

The Illusion Contest website is currently under construction and will be up
very soon with further information.

Submit your ideas now and take home this prestigious award!

On behalf of the Neural Correlate Society: Susana Martinez-Conde (Illusion
Contest Coordinator)

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Susana Martinez-Conde, PhD
Director, Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience
Division of Neurobiology
Barrow Neurological Institute
350 W. Thomas Rd
Phoenix AZ 85013, USA

Phone: +1 (602) 406-3484
Fax: +1 (602) 406-4172
Email: smart at neuralcorrelate.com
http://www.neuralcorrelate.com/smc_lab/