Pareidolia: the human tendency to see a pattern or image of something that does not exist, for example a face in a cloud.
The Chapman University Survey of American Fears, conducted annually through Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, unmasks what makes American society fearful. The survey underscores how anxieties are filtered and amplified by media platforms that create feedback loops to reinforce our cultural and political fears. Pareidolia uses data from this survey, algorithms, and the internet as tools of artistic exploration to capture the nature of fear in our digital times. Images of faces, words, and other miscellaneous motifs sporadically emerge through a misty animation that captures the evasive nature of fear. These nebulous presences suggest our tendency to misperceive events and phenomena, revealing how so many of our contemporary fears are projections of our inner ghosts.
The Chapman University Survey of American Fears, conducted annually through Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, unmasks what makes American society fearful. The survey underscores how anxieties are filtered and amplified by media platforms that create feedback loops to reinforce our cultural and political fears. Pareidolia uses data from this survey, algorithms, and the internet as tools of artistic exploration to capture the nature of fear in our digital times. Images of faces, words, and other miscellaneous motifs sporadically emerge through a misty animation that captures the evasive nature of fear. These nebulous presences suggest our tendency to misperceive events and phenomena, revealing how so many of our contemporary fears are projections of our inner ghosts.
Four 55'' 4K screens, generative custom software, computer. 2023
Purchased with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and Individual Donors.
Purchased with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and Individual Donors.