"It gradually begins to spin as a woman in a Museum of Illusions T-shirt operates the crank next to it. The disc picks up speed, becoming a vortex. "Now is a good time to mention that I've just come off the back of twenty-two hours' worth of flights, so I'm severely jet-lagged," the British actor tells me, keeping his eyes locked on the accelerating spiral. "This could be quite dangerous.""
"The exhibit is designed to imprint visitors' corneas so that when they look away their eyes continue to interpret the normal world as a dizzying swirl of curlicues, not unlike Van Gogh's The Starry Night. "I'm sort of seeing that already," Whitehall says, as the hypno-disc goes round and round and round. When it's time to look elsewhere and experience the aftereffect, Whitehall first gazes at his own hands, then at other curiosity seekers milling about the lobby."
Jack Whitehall visits the Museum of Illusions and tries a hypno-disc that spins into a vortex capable of imprinting temporary corneal afterimages. The spinning disc creates a vision of swirling curlicues likened to Van Gogh's The Starry Night. Whitehall, jet-lagged from long flights, keeps his eyes fixed on the spiral, jokes about potential danger, and then tests the aftereffect by looking at his hands and other visitors. He moves through other exhibits including a giant kaleidoscope that multiplies his face into an infinity of reflections. Whitehall uses self-mockery while engaging with the exhibits and promoting a new Peacock comedy series.
Read at Esquire
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