Guides

A very silly subject with a surprising amount of real craft in it. These 8 guides are written by Luca Intini in Perth, and cover what actually sticks to what, how to photograph something small and shiny outdoors, what you should and should not decorate, and where googly eyes came from in the first place.

• Sticking (and removing) googly eyes outdoors

  Googly eyes are cheap and the physics is not. Anyone who has had a pair fall off a lamppost by lunchtime knows the fun part (choosing the object) is not the hard part.

• Photographing googly eyes

  The eyes themselves are not the hard part of a good photo.

• Where it's fine to put googly eyes, and where it isn't

  Sticking a pair of googly eyes on something is a small act, and most of the time nobody minds, because most of the time nobody's property or safety is at stake.

• A short history of googly eyes

  Take a plastic shell shaped like a shallow dome. Put a small black disc inside it, loose enough to slide. Glue a white or card backing on the flat side to keep the disc in.

• Where googly eyes turn up in a town

  Walk any high street slowly enough and you start to notice that some objects are far more likely to be wearing a pair of googly eyes than others.

• Why we see faces in things

  Most people have looked at the front of a car, a power socket or a tap and felt, for a moment, that it was looking back.

• A googly eye walk with kids

  A googly eye walk is an ordinary stroll with one extra job: finding the faces that already live on the street.

• What makes a googly-eye placement funny

  Two people can stick a pair of googly eyes on the same bin and get completely different results. One produces a small shock of recognition, the sort of thing you photograph and show someone.

For how the app itself works, read how it works or the manual.

Last update: 2026-10-16 AWST