TITLE: physiognomies

The mind has the ability to find patterns even in chaos. This is confirmed by the phenomenon of pareidolia, which involves finding familiar shapes in completely random arrangements. The human mind is particularly attuned to picking up a set of defining features of the human face that involuntarily catch our attention. In the process, the ability to intuitively read from such illusions information about their apparent emotions, such as fear, joy or anger, is extremely interesting. Certain areas of our brain (so-called mirror neurons) allow us to enter a state of empathy by simply observing other people's emotions. The fascinating thing is that we have the ability to empathise not only with other people - this state is also induced by their illusions.
The aim of this project is not so much to illustrate the phenomenon of pareidolia itself, but to reveal through photographs the great power of empathy, which allows us to empathise even with such insignificant objects/illusions as used paper packaging. By observing them, we are able not only to read their 'feelings' but allow them to resonate with our own emotions.

AUTHOR: Marek Gajek (Poland)