Every era leaves behind artifacts that feel almost too strange to be real: objects that look like props from dystopian fiction but were, in fact, earnest attempts to solve very real fears.

This experimental anti-flash visor is one of those objects.In 1882, Odilon Redon released a lithograph that still feels eerily modern: The Eye, Like a Strange Balloon, Mounts Toward Infinity.

At first glance, it is deceptively simple. A single eye floats upward over a darkened sea, tethered to a small basket that resembles a skull or severed head. There is no horizon, no destination, no explanation. Only ascent.