FACES in PLACES : The "Pareidolia Effect"
 "Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon involving a stimulus (an image or a sound) wherein the mind perceives a familiar pattern of something where none actually exists.." |
It’s impossible to look at these seaside binoculars and NOT see a face. Our brains have evolved to detect faces in our environment – vital for survival purposes – even when our rational selves knows that what we are responding to is very unlikely to be alive. When we are presented with the minimum facial pattern of two spots above and one spot below, we not only see a face, we assume, as above, that the face is the expression of a sentient being which carries with it a corresponding emotional state; here, a sort of giddy happiness.
 "Hey You! Get outta here!" | There isn’t an equivalent to this hair-trigger responsiveness with creatures other than humans - like cats or dogs - and it also doesn’t happen with the rest of the human body. We don’t immediately give human properties to a tree that might have a humanoid shape. But, if there are a few holes in the tree in the right configuration, that “face” will turn the entire tree into a thinking, enacting creature. Now, try this thought experiment: Imagine the tree with the face (at left) speaking to, and reacting to, us. Unlikely as this might be to actually happen, we accept this scenario without having to suspend our credibility, since we've already determined that the tree has a brain and a personality, like all objects in which we see faces. |
| Now imagine the same tree with the face removed: The tree is speaking the same lines with the same voice. Our instinctive response – no matter how much the tree might resemble a person, with limbs for arms and legs – is that someone besides the tree is speaking, perhaps standing behind it, or whispering in our ears. For artists, the consequence of our extreme face sensitivity – and credulousness – is that the sky is the limit in terms of bringing the inanimate world alive. There isn’t any man-made object, plant or landscape element that can’t be given the gift of life, as long as its surface includes elements that we can attribute to a face, typically a pair of eyes and and a mouth. |  ("Hey you! Get outta here!) |
 "Tee-hee" |  "Whaa?" |  "Yo!" |
This phenomenon is particularly amusing when such faces are unintentionally created by certain details belonging to an inanimate object, and a number of websites are devoted to collecting photographs of these accidental faces, like the binoculars at top. That same website provided me with photos of two chuckling airplanes, a "distressed" faucet, and a shouting barn; each a vivid example of a found face, and each projecting a strong emotion. Try looking at these objects without seeing them as alive; it’s impossible with the airplanes and the faucet, although marginally do-able with the barn (people vary in their sensitivity to face stimuli with less obvious configurations).
 "World’s Friendliest Airline!” | Interestingly, industrial designers have long been aware of this issue. I was once hired as a consultant on an airplane project, because the designers were concerned that the head-on view of the plane might send the wrong subliminal message, through its unavoidable built-in face. They wanted my opinion as to whether the shape of the cockpit windows, and the features of the front end under the nose, could be adjusted to give a feeling of both friendliness and confidence. They were equally concerned that the plane face not appear angry, or weak. They explained that automobile and truck designers also focused on these same psychologically-charged design issues. |
| (Alas, my input had no impact at all on the final design of the commercial jet's "face." Important as expressions are, in the case of airplanes, considerations of functionality, cost, weight, and of course safety are overwhelmingly more significant. ) Animators, however, can put the face and its expressive qualities as their first and foremost concern, remembering that once a face of any sort at all is created, it magically becomes a living, breathing member of the tribe. |  "Well...Hi there!" |
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Credits: Definition of pareidolia from Wikipedia; Top 4 photos from www.WTFace.com (see also: FacesinPlaces.blogspot.com); Tree drawings by Gary Faigin; Smiley jet front end from Pacific Southwest Airlines ad campaign, "Catch our Smile"; Smiley car front end from Mazda; Bottom 3 cartoon characters from Disney movies: "Cars" "Beauty & the Beast" (Mrs. Teapot) + "Planes."
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