In the October 2009 issue of Smithsonian Magazine, an article appeared in which art historian Henry Adams contended that abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock hid the letters of his name in his famous 1943 painting, Mural. Adams’ wife noticed the painter’s name among the otherwise formless mass of shapes in the piece, and once she pointed it out to her husband, he couldn’t help but notice it. Soon after, the world couldn’t help it, either.
But was this couple really seeing what they thought they were?
Perhaps not. Pareidolia - the tendency of the mind to incorrectly assign familiar patterns to images or sounds that don’t actually contain those patterns - is an extremely common phenomenon that could account for what the Adamses perceived.
The human mind is built to take shortcuts by using learned patterns of recognition to fill in gaps in our senses. To illustrate why this is normally so useful, pretend that you are on one side of a picket fence. A dog walks by on the other side. All that you actually see is a flash of fur, a glimpse of a leg. Yet you don’t come to the conclusion that the leg is floating around by itself. Your brain has no trouble figuring out what’s behind the fence, even with this tiny amount of data. It puts together a complete picture, filling in the gaps with your previous knowledge about what dogs look like, how they walk, and so on.
Imagine what the world would be like if you couldn’t draw conclusions based on patterns. Every time you saw a dog, you would not recognize it, even if it was only slightly different than another dog – indeed, even if the same dog walked away and came back. In short, you would be unable to learn anything.
Once in a while, the mind’s automatic gap-filler screws up by creating patterns that aren’t actually there. It’s caused plenty of controversies in popular culture. For instance, as long as rock music has been inciting kids to rebellious acts, some parents have convinced themselves that the artists are embedding Satanic messages in their songs that can be heard when played backwards. And indeed, the parents do hear the messages, at least in their own minds. This is often because someone has already told them what words to listen for. Their minds select the pattern they expect to hear, et voila! Jim Morrison’s lyric, “treasures there,” becomes “I am Satan” when played in reverse.
Pareidolia have even been known to spark conspiracy theories, such as when NASA released the now-infamous “Face on Mars” photographs. The vaguely visage-resembling mound of dirt was taken by a number of UFO enthusiasts as incontrovertible “proof” of artificial construction - and therefore intelligent extraterrestrial life. This group also accused NASA of “covering up” any reports of alien life. The conspiracy theory persists today - although these same people would laugh if you told them that a cloud that looked like a face was proof that there were people inside making it rain (and that meteorologists were covering that up).
What about the Pollock painting, then? Could he really have hidden his name in there? As the article mentioned, “It may not be possible to answer the question definitively unless scientists use X-ray scanning or some other method to trace which pigments were put down first.”
Until then, the jury is out. But don’t be surprised if this turns out to be one more example of someone’s own mind seeing what it wants to see.
But was this couple really seeing what they thought they were?
Perhaps not. Pareidolia - the tendency of the mind to incorrectly assign familiar patterns to images or sounds that don’t actually contain those patterns - is an extremely common phenomenon that could account for what the Adamses perceived.
The human mind is built to take shortcuts by using learned patterns of recognition to fill in gaps in our senses. To illustrate why this is normally so useful, pretend that you are on one side of a picket fence. A dog walks by on the other side. All that you actually see is a flash of fur, a glimpse of a leg. Yet you don’t come to the conclusion that the leg is floating around by itself. Your brain has no trouble figuring out what’s behind the fence, even with this tiny amount of data. It puts together a complete picture, filling in the gaps with your previous knowledge about what dogs look like, how they walk, and so on.
Imagine what the world would be like if you couldn’t draw conclusions based on patterns. Every time you saw a dog, you would not recognize it, even if it was only slightly different than another dog – indeed, even if the same dog walked away and came back. In short, you would be unable to learn anything.
Once in a while, the mind’s automatic gap-filler screws up by creating patterns that aren’t actually there. It’s caused plenty of controversies in popular culture. For instance, as long as rock music has been inciting kids to rebellious acts, some parents have convinced themselves that the artists are embedding Satanic messages in their songs that can be heard when played backwards. And indeed, the parents do hear the messages, at least in their own minds. This is often because someone has already told them what words to listen for. Their minds select the pattern they expect to hear, et voila! Jim Morrison’s lyric, “treasures there,” becomes “I am Satan” when played in reverse.
Pareidolia have even been known to spark conspiracy theories, such as when NASA released the now-infamous “Face on Mars” photographs. The vaguely visage-resembling mound of dirt was taken by a number of UFO enthusiasts as incontrovertible “proof” of artificial construction - and therefore intelligent extraterrestrial life. This group also accused NASA of “covering up” any reports of alien life. The conspiracy theory persists today - although these same people would laugh if you told them that a cloud that looked like a face was proof that there were people inside making it rain (and that meteorologists were covering that up).
What about the Pollock painting, then? Could he really have hidden his name in there? As the article mentioned, “It may not be possible to answer the question definitively unless scientists use X-ray scanning or some other method to trace which pigments were put down first.”
Until then, the jury is out. But don’t be surprised if this turns out to be one more example of someone’s own mind seeing what it wants to see.
