Do you experience heightened pareidolia? Do you see faces in things?

I have often seen faces in inanimate objects. As I go about my day I might see it in a building parking-meter or many other things.
I have always thought that I saw things this way because I have an active imagination and artistic ability's that might give me a different perception of the world then some people.
I was thrilled to discover there was a term for it pareidolia.

I was wondering how many other people experience this and at what frequency.
I'm not talking about seeing Jesus in your toast but just going about your day and seeing faces on things and maybe anthropomorphizing them some what.









Feel free to add any Images

a reply to: SolAquarius

Nothing imaginary about seeing the face on that first church pic. They designed it that way.

The face of God is watching you.

Gargoyles on buildings in the past were created to have this 'watching you' effect on populations.

Nowadays they have replaced the gargoyles with CCTV cameras.

originally posted by: intrptr



The face of God is watching you.

.

Well the face of God in that case kind of looks like a goofy bird.
So if it was intentional I don't really know where they were trying to go with it.

originally posted by: SolAquarius

originally posted by: intrptr



The face of God is watching you.

.

Well the face of God in that case kind of looks like a goofy bird.
So if it was intentional I don't really know where they were trying to go with it.

'Looks like', as big a face as possible to be recognized as far away as possible, '

Yes i do too.

I like how depending on the type of face, it gives the building that feeling.

Like.. Im pretty sure this roof top is up to somthing....

a reply to: Biigs

That roof without a doubt is up to something.
I get this mental visual of seeing the roof as all orange tiles and suddenly these eyes blinking open for a moment.
Perhaps some one with Photoshop skills could animate it as a gif.

I really love this one.
I can almost hear the expressions of this nerotic nervous Caterpillar creature as it makes
its way along the streets

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: SolAquarius

Nothing imaginary about seeing the face on that first church pic. They designed it that way.

The face of God is watching you.

Gargoyles on buildings in the past were created to have this 'watching you' effect on populations.

Nowadays they have replaced the gargoyles with CCTV cameras.

The face of God looks like Chicken Little?

I see faces in things like marble/granite, wood, gravel on the ground, patches of dirt, texture on walls....

My peripheral vision in my bad eye is extraordinarily good (im legally blind in one eye), and im always having that little startle response when i see an unexpected face out of the corner of my eye.

a reply to: SolAquarius

I think so too as well of late....over my lifetime Ive seen many things Ive come to dismiss. But, lately...I seem to be seeing and recognizing more and more of them.

Don't know why, unless we as a race (humans) are for some reason being made aware or alerted to pay attention.....?????

Best, MS

I love it when artist play around with pareidollia.

a reply to: SolAquarius

I've always seen faces and people/animal shapes in things.

I've always chalked it off as being a leftover of a gazillion years of evolution... when recognizing a hiding enemy/predator was literally a matter of life and death.

Side note to the group here: Awesome pictures. Thanks.

a reply to: SolAquarius

I have always seen the faces before i knew it had a name. I was relieved I wasn't the only one seeing faces in the walls, floors, and objects.

I think my favorite is the surveillance camera pointing a gun. He has personality.

The Halloween Comet Skull

I always see faces in things!

Googles Deep Dream AI seems to have severe case of pareidolia that seems to be some where in the spectrum
of a Hunter S Thompson level of experience.

originally posted by: Darkblade71
I always see faces in things!

Oh this gave me such a good laugh.

The camera one(last pic in the OP) that "looks" like it's holding a gun, seems to be almost intentional. At least in that angle.
a reply to: SolAquarius

Me too, some of my favs. So much i recreated the last painting, was pretty fun and challenging to get it right.

I would still like to know if people are more prone to it then others. For example at my parents house there is an oriental rug which has a repeating patern that looks like an old man with a beard yet my relatives think I'm nuts if I mention it because they don't see it.

a reply to: SolAquarius

This type of thing really isnt that surprising.

Some people are 'better' at it than others. The simple truth is that the human brain is nothing more than a highly complex pattern recognition machine.

Seeing patterns in behaviours helps us hunt, patterns in nature helps is farm and patterns in health and food help us eat the right things and do the right things to avoid malnutrition, poisoning and poor health/disease/illness.

Some times our pattern recognising is a little too amp'ed and we see patterns in things that ARE a pattern but simply the product of pure random chance. Like seeing Jesus is a coffee stain.

Certain chemicals effect on the brain that im not permitted to discuss (im sure you can make the link yourself using your pattern programmed brains) make the brain go into pattern recognition overdrive and see complex patterns and fractals in basic patterns or even just static non-sense. Are these patterns really there? or can the "normal" brain just not see them? Who knows at the moment, but we are getting there.

Theres tonnes of material on the web about our brains and patterns, so i'll just throw one link here, if you are interested google will help you.

Brain & patterns

a reply to: Biigs
Yup preaching to the choir with the biological and evolutionary reasons for the phenomena this is nothing new to me.
What I'm curious about is if there is a more focused awareness on it among artists and creative types.
Then again maybe accountants see faces in every day objects they just never bring it up.

One I spotter myself in the wild