Art and Pareidolia relationship

Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon and apophenia found in every human being. It can be defined as an erroneous attribution of meaning. This phenomenon has existed since the beginning of human existence. Some sources state that it is a trait that enables humans to survive in nature. Nowadays, when defining pareidolia, it is more common to talk about likening clouds to something or inanimate objects to human faces. Even if people are not aware of it, they can experience pareidolia in all areas through the senses. The most common area where pareidolia manifests itself is daily life. Pareidolia has been used in art by many artists to reveal their imagination, and sometimes it has been experienced by the audience in works of art and has been effective in the meaning process. Although it is a phenomenon that affects the meaning of the work or is used for creativity, research has shown that there is not enough data on this subject. It has been observed that different concepts such as chance or coincidence are used instead of the concept of pareidolia. The aim of this research is to provide information about pareidolia and to analyze how the phenomenon is used by artists and how it is experienced by the audience by examining pareidolia through works of art. For this purpose, literature review method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. The definition of pareidolia, the way it is experienced in daily life, its relationship with psychology and the unconscious, and its relationship with art were analyzed separately. As a result, it was observed that the phenomenon of pareidolia is also used in the field of art and it was emphasized that it can be used as a starting point in terms of content for art works. It is thought that this study may constitute a source for future studies on the subject.