Ben Reihanian Week 2 - "Hey! That kind of looks like a face!" - The Fascinating Phenomenon of Pareidolia

The Fascinating Phenomenon of Pareidolia


    Ever since I was little, I’ve seen faces all over the world in inanimate objects, particularly in cars. The front and trunk of a car look a lot like a face, the two head/backlights as eyes, and the front/back bumpers are a mouth. In my young mind, every car had a different personality based on how they looked (to be honest I think Pixar noticed this too and said, “we can profit on that”. Even inside the car, there were faces like where the air conditioning vents are and where the roof lights are. Faces aren’t only visible in a car though, look around your house as well. I actually took a break from writing this in order to explore my whole house looking for faces. I found a face in things from tape dispensers to the design of tiles in my bathroom. I’ll provide pictures of everything I am attempting to describe down below. Something that is apparent with each face is that three attributes are always there, being, two eyes and one mouth. I rediscovered these faces a couple days ago on my way to school with my mom in the car. I asked her, “Ema, I wonder why there are so many random faces everywhere” … she looked at me like I was crazy so I further explained myself using the same examples as above. I decided I wanted to write about this phenomenon rather randomly because I knew that it would definitely be something someone has already researched and noticed. What's the name of this cool phenomenon? It’s Pareidolia, coming from the Greek words pará ("beside, alongside, instead [of]") and the noun eídōlon  ("image, form, shape"). 

Pareidolia is the reason why we see faces in these sets of keyboard characters, :) ;) B) :o :P  ˚∆˚ –_–  -_-, etc. It is also why we interpret the shapes of clouds as certain animals.

    Research enlightened me on how long humans have been seeing faces in random inanimate objects, (pretty much since the dawn of time with cave paintings). A caveman artist would use the cave and its grooves to create whatever he wanted. Claude Mollard, a pareidolia photographer said, “Man began to create with his gaze before creating with his hands”. This quote by him from the video that I watched about this phenomenon really struck out to me because of the truth of it. The video also went into the wonderful world of pareidolia art, describing this phenomenon as an “inexhaustible source of inspiration for artists”. There are dozens of famous paintings where artists trick our minds into seeing faces, and the outcome is fascinating. 

    From such a random topic, I discovered a world of art and psychology. Where do you see faces in inanimate objects in your life?

Video about Pareidolia: https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/093029-022-A/pareidolia-seeing-faces-everywhere/ 

















Comments

  1. Mrs. HSep 15, 2021, 10:25:00 AM

    Everywhere. I see faces everywhere. Cars are the most obvious, but really once you start seeing the faces in objects, it's difficult to stop. I didn't realize that it is related to seeing shapes in the clouds, but it makes sense. And of course I do that too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSep 15, 2021, 2:18:00 PM

    I see faces particularly in cars. A few months ago, I went with a few friends to a restaurant and when we finished eating, we went on a walk and we passed some parked cars. I asked my friends "do you ever look at cars and think , that car is mad, and that car is happy and that car is sad"? My friends looked at me like I was crazy. I then explained to them that the headlights are the eyes and the grill and bumper of the car is the mouth. After explaining to them, they understood what I meant. They stared at the cars and said "OMG ya, that car looks really mad."

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSep 16, 2021, 8:59:00 PM

    I have always seen faces in objects, particularly in cars and outlets. I always thought that seeing faces was just a strange part of my imagination. It is eye-opening to see that this is a more universal phenomenon and it has actually been researched and named.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousSep 16, 2021, 11:15:00 PM

      I agree with you! thats why I wrote about it :)

      Delete
  4. Michael HakimSep 23, 2021, 10:37:00 AM

    That is so cool! I see faces all the time, especially in cars. I always picture cars as people.

    ReplyDelete

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