A whole image. Three deformations. A body that lets itself be crossed.
This is not about creating, but altering.
Not about drawing, but deviating perception.
This page explores distortion as a visual act — not applied to an idea, but to a real image.
The chosen photograph is Lenna, in her full version — not the usual cropped standard.
No longer just an algorithmic benchmark: here the body returns whole, and precisely for that reason, it can be bent, warped, melted.
Three original filters are applied to the same image:
continuous spiral, squared rotation, fluid dissolution.
Each one touches space and gaze differently.
Each one transforms a familiar image into something unsettlingly other.
Original image
1. Seashell Filter
This filter applies a nonlinear distortion starting from the center of each block.
Pixels are rewritten along a logarithmic curve, as if the entire scene were being pulled into a seashell.
The effect is hypnotic: the eye is drawn inward but cannot find a stable center.
The spiral doesn’t resolve — it swallows.
2. Squared Spiral Filter
The spiral becomes square, like a rule that breaks itself.
Here, distortion follows angular trajectories.
Rotation is constructed like a maze: each pixel rotates around the center along a broken spiral, disrupting the scene’s natural symmetry.
Edges curve, but in blocks, in jolts.
The figure is still there, but as if trapped in a grid that imposes impossible directions.
3. Melting Filter
Liquid contours, like a memory dissolving.
This filter gradually melts the edges, letting details slide downward.
The scene seems to dissolve like wax, or as if immersed in water.
It’s not a simple fade — it’s a loss of spatial coherence.
Facial traits remain, but blur into soft trails, as if the image were forgetting itself.
An almost dreamlike effect, where visual identity becomes diluted.
Conclusion
Three distortions. One single image.
Not generative art. Not painting. Not typography.
A perceptual experiment.
An act of real-world manipulation.
A form of controlled hallucination.