M.C. Escher’s artwork is a gateway into a world of depth-defying optical illusions, featuring “impossible objects” that break the laws of physics with convoluted geometries. What you perceive his illustrations to be depends on your point of view — for example, a person seemingly walking upstairs may be heading down the steps if you tilt your head sideways. Computer graphics scientists and designers can recreate these illusions in 3D, but only by bending or cutting a real shape and positioning it at a particular angle. This workaround has downsides, though: Changing the…
