Ambigram Magic Dream

Mirror symmetry (vertical axis).

19 July 2020

This picture is available on Wikimedia Commons with a free license CC BY-SA 4.0 (Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International) - © Basile Morin

Handheld pattern giving a reversed shadow on a blue wall. There is an expression, "it's all done with smoke and mirrors", used to explain something baffling. On the right, a human hand holds a white cloud of paper with holes as letter shapes. Contre-jour photograph, where the word "Dream" cut out within the cloud filters the sunlight to produce a symmetrical shadow on the left, displaying the word "Magic" on a wall. The blue background evokes the sky. Here the trick is immediately revealed through the photography, however it is possible for a conjurer to use the hollow pattern in the cloud of paper, to delude spectators. Mise en abyme is a formal technique of placing a copy of an image within itself, often in a way that suggests an infinitely recurring sequence (kind of self-reference). Magical magic :-)

The couple Magic / Dream is one of the most cooperative pair of 5-letter words, by mirror symmetry. Magic and Dream are also among the terms matching best with the concept of ambigram, because ambigrams are sorts of optical illusions, and dream is part of any magic. The letters M/M, A/A and C/D are simply natural when they are reversed. The letter R turns into an I without difficulty. Only the combination E/G is a bit tricky, but still relatively easy to shape, with a single cut in the outline, in any case much easier than most of the other combinations produced by the 26 x 26 letters of the alphabet. As a result, no wonder several specialists work out the same solution, when exploring the idea. Same chance, probably, as the obvious palindromes "mirror rim" or "Dogma I am God". In French, for the word Rêve (Dream), I found a 4 times symmetrical calligraphy: "Reves ici venez", meaning here dreams come. This concept of "Magic Dream" (or "Dream Magic") is similar to that other creation, with rotational symmetry, also designed with clouds: Real world / Prank Fake. As an ambigram designer, I often explore the phenomena of shadow, transparency, and mirroring objects, to give life to my finds, like Motel / Water, used with water reflection, Belges / Perdez with a top-down shadow, Penelope / Benevole through a mirror, or Cognac / Danger on a shot glass.