WATCH: Oil flows wrong way in brain-twisting illusion

(Matt Kenyon, SWAMP)

Can any physicist readers work out what's going on here? SWAMP, an artistic duo, have created an installation called 'Supermajor' - video above - in which oil is clearly pouring out of a vintage can, puddling onto a table below, but looks like it's in fact climbing up from the puddle back into the can. We're completely stumped...

But this optical illusion is more than a spot of fun. The Big Six oil companies (Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron etc) have come to be known as 'Supermajors' , and Matt Kenyon of SWAMP explained the thinking behind the installation as follows: "I spent a lot of time watching video footage of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. These disasters give us a clear image of the implications of such abundance and waste."

As Fast Company point out: "The installation foregrounds the difference between what our eyes see (oil slowly dripping onto the floor) and what we know must be true (oil is pouring onto the floor)."

They also have some theories on how the effect has been created...but before you click through to read, give us your best guess. (One last thing, there is oil flowing, wave a finger under the spout and it comes up slick with the stuff).