This image is called the duck-rabbit. It’s a famous example of an optical illusion called an “ambiguous image.” Looked at from one angle, it’s a duck. (Those two things jutting out to the left make up its beak.) From another angle, it’s a rabbit. (The duck’s beak becomes the rabbit’s ears.)
One of the most fascinating things about the duck-rabbit is the way it switches once you see it as the other thing. It’s a philosophical problem that a famous Austrian philosopher named Ludwig Wittgenstein discussed in a book called Philosophical Investigations. It’s almost magical, the way your mind can see the same object as something new.
But that kind of imagination isn’t limited to special pictures like the duck-rabbit. Every day people take an unused item and turn it into something else. If you ever turned a tree branch into your magic wand or a paper towel tube into a pirate telescope, you were doing something similar.
This month, we want you to show us how you can turn something old into something new. What object can you “upcycle” or craft into a different kind of thing? It could be clothing, toys, tools, or anything else! Submit your work and we’ll feature it next month!