GART

Peripheral Drift

Nothing here moves. Each band runs dark to light the same way round, and the field creeps sideways whenever you look past it.

Peripheral Drift: Nothing here moves. Each band runs dark to light the same way round, and the field creeps sideways whenever you look past it.Peripheral Drift: Nothing here moves. Each band runs dark to light the same way round, and the field creeps sideways whenever you look past it.

About this pattern

Akiyoshi Kitaoka · peripheral drift, after Fraser & Wilcox, 1979

Peripheral Drift, optical illusion, drawn by GART: Nothing here moves. Each band runs dark to light the same way round, and the field creeps sideways whenever you look past it.
Peripheral Drift · CC BY 4.0

A repeating asymmetric run of tones (black, dark, white, light) is read as motion toward the lighter end. High-contrast edges are registered marginally sooner than soft ones, and the visual system resolves that timing difference as a drift. It only works away from the centre of vision, and it stops dead if you fix on one band, because steady fixation removes the small eye movements the effect feeds on.

TopicsOptical illusion (opens in a new tab)Peripheral drift illusion (opens in a new tab)

Behind the mathematics

Akiyoshi Kitaokaborn 1961

Rotating Snakes and peripheral drift

Japanese psychologist whose Rotating Snakes and other still images appear to turn, refining the peripheral drift illusion.