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Frank O'Toole -- Physiognomization
"You might be particularly tired, or anxious, or simply relaxed. From the wood grain, from the pattern of folds at the curtain's base, in the mottled concrete floor - a face emerges. Sometimes it slips away immediately, sometimes you stare at it until it transforms into something else, or a group of faces appear, but if your attention (half attention?) is taken away, there will be only randomness when you look for the face again. Everyone experiences this to one degree or another; if it happens to a degree that is problematic, it is labeled "physiognomization." Please click on the image, to view it large, and notice an artists rendering of the process. variant termsPhysiognomization is, in fact, a specific subset of pareidolia, which in turn is a subset of apophenia. The initial term is primarily clinical, as opposed the the latter two, which are general. Also, the term appears more frequently (and in somewhat varied forms) in Continental psychiatric literature, an over sight that Dr. Minskoff hopes in part to correct. Here is one link of some use |
Acid Trip
I'm never going to look at my expensive chintz sofa in the same way again, thanks to you Mr. O'Toole. I'm sorry to report that I'm going to have to send my interior designer's bill to you. Faces in the Folds, however, sounds like a most intiguing project that you should continue to investigate.
Eriko Arakawa
Super Model, Socialite, Art Expert and Old Skool Party Girl