View allAll Photos Tagged ordinary_object
I was shooting the sunset in my backyard.
It is the sunset without the sun though.
This is the buckle of my garden shed with its long shadow.
Puss Tabby was staying with me while I took the shot.
. . . Edward Weston and classic black & white photography.
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Garlic with a Twist (some 'Jas' style thrown in)
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This week the theme was to take a photograph in the style of a well known photographer. I chose Edward Weston because my eye is constantly seduced by the always wonderful aesthetic lines and shapes in his photography. In addition to the attention he gives to the gray tones as well as the contrast in the beautiful texture of ordinary objects.
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This challenge for Macro Mondays "Black&White" was very exciting for me. My head was full of ideas, but you know, in practice everything was wrong: light, exposure, sharpness... Some shots was ok, but still ordinary, not special for me. Then I've reminded that I have a black ceramic salt cellar from Paris - so this is it. I started to admired this shape and beautiful reflections. It was very difficult to catch this moment: the best of the best, but I tried so hard and I am very glad that you enjoy it.
Thanks for your kind comments :) HMM
7DWF Crazy Tuesday Theme
My favorite drug is distilling something extraordinary from ordinary objects by selecting a particular perspective and a depth of field :) Peter's words fully summarizing my motto :)
If you look carefully, you can see a map of Greenland, North America, Central America, South America, and the Gulf of Mexico. That's called pareidolia.
Pareidolia is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Pareidolia is a specific but common type of apophenia (the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things or ideas).
Common examples include perceived images of animals, faces, or objects in cloud formations; seeing faces in inanimate objects; or lunar pareidolia like the Man in the Moon or the Moon rabbit. The concept of pareidolia may extend to include hidden messages in recorded music played in reverse or at higher- or lower-than-normal speeds, and hearing voices (mainly indistinct) or music in random noise, such as that produced by air conditioners or by fans.[3][4] Face pareidolia has also been demonstrated in rhesus macaques.[5]
Etymology
The word derives from the Greek words pará (παρά, "beside, alongside, instead [of]") and the noun eídōlon (εἴδωλον, "image, form, shape").[6]
Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum introduced the German term Pareidolie in his 1866 paper "Die Sinnesdelierien"[7] ("On Delusion of the Senses"). When Kahlbaum's paper was reviewed the following year (1867) in The Journal of Mental Science, Volume 13, Pareidolie was translated into English as "pareidolia", and noted to be synonymous with the terms "...changing hallucination, partial hallucination, [and] perception of secondary images."[8]
Link to other conditions
Pareidolia correlates with age and is frequent among patients with Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.[9]
Explanations
Pareidolia can cause people to interpret random images, or patterns of light and shadow, as faces.[10] A 2009 magnetoencephalography study found that objects perceived as faces evoke an early (165 ms) activation of the fusiform face area at a time and location similar to that evoked by faces, whereas other common objects do not evoke such activation. This activation is similar to a slightly faster time (130 ms) that is seen for images of real faces. The authors suggest that face perception evoked by face-like objects is a relatively early process, and not a late cognitive reinterpretation phenomenon.[11]
A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in 2011 similarly showed that repeated presentation of novel visual shapes that were interpreted as meaningful led to decreased fMRI responses for real objects. These results indicate that the interpretation of ambiguous stimuli depends upon processes similar to those elicited by known objects.[12]
Pareidolia was found to affect brain function and brain waves. In a 2022 study, EEG records show that responses in the frontal and occipitotemporal cortexes begin prior to when one recognizes faces and later, when they are not recognized.[13] By displaying these proactive brain waves, scientists can then have a basis for data rather than relying on self-reported sightings. [clarification needed]
These studies help to explain why people generally identify a few lines and a circle as a "face" so quickly and without hesitation. Cognitive processes are activated by the "face-like" object which alerts the observer to both the emotional state and identity of the subject, even before the conscious mind begins to process or even receive the information. A "stick figure face", despite its simplicity, can convey mood information, and be drawn to indicate emotions such as happiness or anger. This robust and subtle capability is hypothesized to be the result of natural selection favoring people most able to quickly identify the mental state, for example, of threatening people, thus providing the individual an opportunity to flee or attack preemptively.[14] This ability, though highly specialized for the processing and recognition of human emotions, also functions to determine the demeanor of wildlife.[15][self-published source?]
Pareidolia and creative thinking
Pareidolia plays a significant role in creative cognition, enabling artists and viewers to perceive novel forms and meanings in ambiguous stimuli.[16] Joanne Lee highlights that this phenomenon has been harnessed in artistic practices for centuries (Da Vinci for example).[17] The phenomenon was particularly important to surrealism, where artists like Salvador Dali, influenced by André Breton, embraced pareidolic ambiguity to challenge rationalist perceptions and provoke new ways of seeing.[18]
Examples
Mimetoliths
A more detailed photograph taken in different lighting in 2001 clarifies the "face" to be a natural rock formation.
A mimetolithic pattern is a pattern created on rocks that may come to mimic recognizable forms through the random processes of formation, weathering and erosion. A well-known example is the Face on Mars, a rock formation on Mars that resembled a human face in certain satellite photos. Most mimetoliths are much larger than the subjects they resemble, such as a cliff profile that looks like a human face.
Picture jaspers exhibit combinations of patterns, such as banding from flow or depositional patterns (from water or wind), or dendritic or color variations, resulting in what appear to be miniature scenes on a cut section, which is then used for jewelry.
Chert nodules, concretions, or pebbles may in certain cases be mistakenly identified as skeletal remains, egg fossils, or other antiquities of organic origin by amateur enthusiasts.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Japanese researcher Chonosuke Okamura self-published a series of reports titled Original Report of the Okamura Fossil Laboratory, in which he described tiny inclusions in polished limestone from the Silurian period (425 mya) as being preserved fossil remains of tiny humans, gorillas, dogs, dragons, dinosaurs and other organisms, all of them only millimeters long, leading him to claim, "There have been no changes in the bodies of mankind since the Silurian period... except for a growth in stature from 3.5 mm to 1,700 mm."[19][20] Okamura's research earned him an Ig Nobel Prize (a parody of the Nobel Prize) in biodiversity in 1996.[21][22]
Some sources describe various mimetolithic features on Pluto, including a heart-shaped region.[23][24][25]
Clouds
Seeing shapes in cloud patterns is another example of this phenomenon. Rogowitz and Voss (1990) showed a relationship between seeing shapes in cloud patterns and fractal dimension.[clarification needed] They varied the fractal dimension of the boundary contour from 1.2 to 1.8, and found that the lower the fractal dimension, the more likely people were to report seeing nameable shapes of animals, faces, and fantasy creatures.[26] From above, pareidolia may be perceived in satellite imagery of tropical cyclones. Notably hurricanes Matthew and Milton gained much attention for resembling a human face or skull when viewed from the side.[27]
Mars canals
Map of Martian "canals" by Percival Lowell
Main article: Martian canals
A notable example of pareidolia occurred in 1877, when observers using telescopes to view the surface of Mars thought that they saw faint straight lines, which were then interpreted by some as canals. It was theorized that the canals were possibly created by sentient beings. This created a sensation. In the next few years better photographic techniques and stronger telescopes were developed and applied, which resulted in new images in which the faint lines disappeared, and the canal theory was debunked as an example of pareidolia.[28][29]
Lunar surface
Pareidolias in the moon
Many cultures recognize pareidolic images in the disc of the full moon, including the human face known as the Man in the Moon in many Northern Hemisphere cultures[30][31] and the Moon rabbit in East Asian and indigenous American cultures.[32][33] Other cultures see a walking figure carrying a wide burden on their back,[31] including in Germanic tradition,[34] Haida mythology,[35] and Latvian mythology.[36]
Projective tests
The Rorschach inkblot test uses pareidolia in an attempt to gain insight into a person's mental state. The Rorschach is a projective test that elicits thoughts or feelings of respondents that are "projected" onto the ambiguous inkblot images.[37] Rorschach inkblots have low-fractal-dimension boundary contours, which may elicit general shape-naming behaviors, serving as vehicles for projected meanings.[26]
Banknotes
Owing to the way designs are engraved and printed, occurrences of pareidolia have occasionally been reported in banknotes.
One example is the 1954 Canadian Landscape Canadian dollar banknote series, known among collectors as the "Devil's Head" variety of the initial print runs. The obverse of the notes features what appears to be an exaggerated grinning face, formed from patterns in the hair of Queen Elizabeth II. The phenomenon generated enough attention for revised designs to be issued in 1956, which removed the effect.[38]
Literature
Renaissance authors have shown a particular interest in pareidolia. In William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, for example, Prince Hamlet points at the sky and "demonstrates" his supposed madness in this exchange with Polonius:[39][40]
HAMLET
Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in the shape of a camel?
POLONIUS
By th'Mass and 'tis, like a camel indeed.
HAMLET
Methinks it is a weasel.
POLONIUS
It is backed like a weasel.
HAMLET
Or a whale.
POLONIUS
Very like a whale.
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a short story called "The Great Stone Face" in which a face seen in the side of a mountain (based on the real-life The Old Man of the Mountain) is revered by a village.[41]
Art
The Jurist by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1566. What appears to be his face is a collection of fish and poultry, while his body is a collection of books dressed in a coat.
Salem by Sydney Curnow Vosper (1908), a painting notorious for the belief that the face of the devil was hidden in the main character's shawl
See also: Hidden face
Renaissance artists often used pareidolia in paintings and drawings: Andrea Mantegna, Leonardo da Vinci, Giotto, Hans Holbein, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, and many more have shown images—often human faces—that due to pareidolia appear in objects or clouds.[42]
In his notebooks, Leonardo da Vinci wrote of pareidolia as a device for painters, writing:
If you look at any walls spotted with various stains or with a mixture of different kinds of stones, if you are about to invent some scene you will be able to see in it a resemblance to various different landscapes adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys, and various groups of hills. You will also be able to see divers combats and figures in quick movement, and strange expressions of faces, and outlandish costumes, and an infinite number of things which you can then reduce into separate and well conceived forms.[43]
Salem, a 1908 painting by Sydney Curnow Vosper, gained notoriety due to a rumour that it contained a hidden face, that of the devil. This led many commentators to visualize a demonic face depicted in the shawl of the main figure, despite the artist's denial that any faces had deliberately been painted into the shawl.[44][45]
Surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí would intentionally use pareidolia in their works, often in the form of a hidden face.
Architecture
Illusory woman in the Niğde Alaaddin Mosque portal
Two 13th-century edifices in Turkey display architectural use of shadows of stone carvings at the entrance. Outright pictures are avoided in Islam but tessellations and calligraphic pictures were allowed, so designed "accidental" silhouettes of carved stone tessellations became a creative escape.
Niğde Alaaddin Mosque in Niğde, Turkey (1223), with its "mukarnas" art where the shadows of three-dimensional ornamentation with stone masonry around the entrance form a chiaroscuro drawing of a woman's face with a crown and long hair appearing at a specific time, at some specific days of the year.[46][47][48]
Divriği Great Mosque and Hospital in Sivas, Turkey (1229), shows shadows of the three-dimensional ornaments of both entrances of the mosque part, to cast a giant shadow of a praying man that changes pose as the sun moves, as if to illustrate what the purpose of the building is. Another detail is the difference in the impressions of the clothing of the two shadow-men indicating two different styles, possibly to tell who is to enter through which door.[49]
Religion
Further information: Perceptions of religious imagery in natural phenomena
There have been many instances of perceptions of religious imagery and themes, especially the faces of religious figures, in ordinary phenomena. Many involve images of Jesus,[37] the Virgin Mary,[50] the word Allah,[51] or other religious phenomena: in September 2007 in Singapore, for example, a callus on a tree resembled a monkey, leading believers to pay homage to the "Monkey god" (either Sun Wukong or Hanuman) in the monkey tree phenomenon.[52]
Publicity surrounding sightings of religious figures and other surprising images in ordinary objects has spawned a market for such items on online auctions like eBay. One famous instance was a grilled cheese sandwich with the face of the Virgin Mary.[53]
During the September 11 attacks, television viewers supposedly saw the face of Satan in clouds of smoke billowing out of the World Trade Center after it was struck by the airplane.[54] Another example of face recognition pareidolia originated in the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, when a few observers claimed to see Jesus in the flames.[55]
While attempting to validate the imprint of a crucified man on the Shroud of Turin as Jesus, a variety of objects have been described as being visible on the linen. These objects include a number of plant species, a coin with Roman numerals, and multiple insect species.[56] In an experimental setting using a picture of plain linen cloth, participants who had been told that there could possibly be visible words in the cloth, collectively saw 2 religious words. Those told that the cloth was of some religious importance saw 12 religious words, and those who were also told that it was of religious importance, but also given suggestions of possible religious words, saw 37 religious words.[57] The researchers posit that the reason the Shroud has been said to have so many different symbols and objects is because it was already deemed to have the imprint of Jesus prior to the search for symbols and other imprints in the cloth, and therefore it was simply pareidolia at work.[56]
Computer vision
Further information: Hallucination (artificial intelligence)
Given an image of jellyfish swimming, the DeepDream program can be encouraged to "see" dogs.
Pareidolia can occur in computer vision,[58] specifically in image recognition programs, in which vague clues can spuriously detect images or features. In the case of an artificial neural network, higher-level features correspond to more recognizable features, and enhancing these features brings out what the computer sees. These examples of pareidolia reflect the training set of images that the network has "seen" previously.
Striking visuals can be produced in this way, notably in the DeepDream software, which falsely detects and then exaggerates features such as eyes and faces in any image. The features can be further exaggerated by creating a feedback loop where the output is used as the input for the network. (The adjacent image was created by iterating the loop 50 times.) Additionally, the output can be modified such as slightly zooming in to create an animation of the images perspective flying through the surrealistic imagery.
Auditory
In 1971 Konstantīns Raudive wrote Breakthrough, detailing what he believed was the discovery of electronic voice phenomena (EVP). EVP has been described as auditory pareidolia.[37] Allegations of backmasking in popular music, in which a listener claims a message has been recorded backward onto a track meant to be played forward, have also been described as auditory pareidolia.[37][59] In 1995, the psychologist Diana Deutsch invented an algorithm for producing phantom words and phrases with the sounds coming from two stereo loudspeakers, one to the listener's left and the other to his right, producing a phase offset in time between the speakers. After listening for a while, phantom words and phrases suddenly emerge, and these often appear to reflect what is on the listener's mind.[60][61]
Deliberate practical use
Medical education, radiology images
Cross-section of nematode worm Ascaris
Medical educators sometimes teach medical students and resident physicians (doctors in training) to use pareidolia and patternicity to learn to recognize human anatomy on radiology imaging studies.
Examples include assessing radiographs (X-ray images) of the human vertebral spine. Patrick Foye, M.D., professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Rutgers University, New Jersey Medical School, has written that pareidolia is used to teach medical trainees to assess for spinal fractures and spinal malignancies (cancers).[62] When viewing spinal radiographs, normal bony anatomic structures resemble the face of an owl. (The spinal pedicles resemble an owl's eyes and the spinous process resembles an owl's beak.) But when cancer erodes the bony spinal pedicle, the radiographic appearance changes such that now that eye of the owl seems missing or closed, which is called the "winking owl sign". Another common pattern is a "Scottie dog sign" on a spinal X-ray.[63]
In 2021, Foye again published in the medical literature on this topic, in a medical journal article called "Baby Yoda: Pareidolia and Patternicity in Sacral MRI and CT Scans".[64] Here, he introduced a novel way of visualizing the sacrum when viewing MRI magnetic resonance imaging and CT scans (computed tomography scans). He noted that in certain image slices the human sacral anatomy resembles the face of "Baby Yoda" (also called Grogu), a fictional character from the television show The Mandalorian. Sacral openings for exiting nerves (sacral foramina) resemble Baby Yoda's eyes, while the sacral canal resembles Baby Yoda's mouth.[65]
In popular culture
See also: Among Us § Memes and mods
Many Internet memes about the online game Among Us exploit pareidolia, by showing everyday items (in this case, a trashcan) that look similar to characters from the game.
In January 2017, an anonymous user placed an eBay auction of a Cheeto that looked like the gorilla Harambe. Bidding began at US$11.99, but the Cheeto was eventually sold for US$99,000.[66]
Starting from 2021, an Internet meme emerged around the online game Among Us, where users presented everyday items such as dogs, statues, garbage cans, big toes, and pictures of the Boomerang Nebula that looked like the game's "crewmate" protagonists.[67][68] In May 2021, an eBay user named Tav listed a Chicken McNugget shaped like a crewmate from Among Us for online auction. The Chicken McNugget was sold for US$99,997 to an anonymous buyer.[69]
Related phenomena
A shadow person (also known as a shadow figure, shadow being or black mass) is often attributed to pareidolia. It is the perception of a patch of shadow as a living, humanoid figure, particularly as interpreted by believers in the paranormal or supernatural as the presence of a spirit or other entity.[70]
Pareidolia is also what some skeptics believe causes people to believe that they have seen ghosts.[71]
See also
Clustering illusion – Erroneously seeing patterns in randomness
Conspiracy theory – Attributing events to improbable causes (another example of apophenia)
Eigenface – Set of eigenvectors used in the computer vision problem of human face recognition
Hitler teapot – Kettle perceived to resemble Adolf Hitler
Madonna of the Toast – 2007 book about pareidolia
Mondegreen – Misinterpretation of a spoken phrase
Musical ear syndrome – similar to auditory pareidolia, but with hearing loss
Optical illusion – Visually perceived images that differ from objective reality
Perceptions of religious imagery in natural phenomena
Signal-to-noise ratio – Ratio of the desired signal to the background noise
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Foye, PM; Koger, TJ; Massey, HR (February 2021). "Baby Yoda: Pareidolia and Patternicity in Sacral MRI and CT Scans". PM&R: The Journal of Injury, Function, and Rehabilitation. 13 (2): 217–218. doi:10.1002/pmrj.12496. PMID 32969166. S2CID 221887340.
Foye, Patrick (20 February 2021). "Baby Yoda: Pareidolia and Patternicity in Sacral MRI and CT Scans | Tailbone Doctor". tailbonedoctor.com. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
"Burbank man sells Harambe-shaped Cheeto for nearly $100K on eBay". ABC7. KABC Television LLC. ABC News. 8 February 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
Kennedy, Victoria Phillips (18 April 2021). "Among Us Everywhere: Things That Look Like Among Us Crewmates". Screen Rant. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
Adams, Robert N. (8 February 2022). "The Coldest Spot in Space Looks Like an Among Us Crewmate". TechRaptor. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
Kooser, Amanda (3 June 2021). "McDonald's chicken nugget shaped like Among Us crewmate fetching $100,000 on eBay". CNET. Red Ventures. Archived from the original on 3 February 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
Ahlquist, Diane (2007). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Life After Death. US: Penguin Group. p. 122. ISBN 978-1-59257-651-7.
Carroll, Robert Todd (June 2001). "pareidolia". skepdic.com. Retrieved 19 September 2007.
External links
Look up pareidolia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Pareidolia
at Wikipedia's sister projects
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Commons
Data from Wikidata
Skepdic.com Skeptic's Dictionary definition of pareidolia
A Japanese museum of rocks which look like faces
Article in The New York Times, 13 February 2007, about cognitive science of face recognition
Article in Scientific American, 25 March 2022, "Does This Look like a Face to You?"
vte
Hidden messages
Main
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list Hidden track
list pregap list Phonetic reversal Reverse speech
Numeric
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Fnord Hidden text Paranoiac-critical method Pareidolia Psychorama Sacred geometry Steganography Visual cryptography
Other
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Categories:
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Allow
There is no controlling life.
Try corralling a lightning bolt,
cntaining a tornado. Dam a
stream and it will create a new
channel. Resist, and the tide
will sweep you off your feet.
Allow, and grace will carry
you to higher ground. The only
safety lies in letting it all in –
the wild and the weak; fear,
fantasies, failures and success.
When loss rips off the doors of
the heart, or sadness veils your
vision with despair, practice
becomes simply bearing the truth.
In the choice to let go of your
known way of being, the whole
world is revealed to your new eyes.
~ Danna Faulds
The May challenge was "Ordinary Objects". Take a look at the other shots here : www.flickr.com/groups/ajac/pool/
I am always fascinated by the warm and intensive colors of the early morning light on ordinary objects.
Hope you will enjoy this photo.
Thanks for your views, faves and supportive comments. These are always very much appreciated.
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved.
I've seen more laughable subjects in modern art galleries, but slanting morning light definitely can add an impressionistic touch to ordinary objects.
This is one of my early pictures with water drops. It was taken in 2008.
They are drops on the lid of my lunch box. This contains my favorite elements such as the blue colour, the reflection and the bokeh and the window light in my kitchen.
Have a great Tuesday!
Backstory:
I had washed dinner from the dishes. I was just about to place the fork in the drawer when I stopped. I considered all the times I had simply needed a fork to eat. What I had not considered was taking a picture of one. Why would I? We only use them as a device with which to eat, right?
That thought brought me to this:
What if you took a second or third look at an ordinary object and found a new use for it? Honoring the energy from creative, new options for everyday objects can be liberating experiences. It's a simple exercise, with an unexpected outcome.
There is always a new perspective, a fresh outlook on things, if we take the time to notice. I love photography for this reason and so many others.
Apps Used:
TinType
Pixlr
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Taking inspiration from my visit to OCMA a few days ago, I thought I'd try taking an ordinary object and make it extraordinary. For Macro Mondays and my POTD.
How easy it is to transform ordinary objects into mythical creatures when you are in a certain mood.
Macro Mondays
Three
The RCA connector is named for the Radio Corporation of America, which first used it in the 1940s to connect phonographs to amplifiers. Generally it refers to a cable with three color-coded plugs, which connect to three correspondingly-colored jacks (these are also called 'phono plugs' and 'phono jacks,' short for phonograph). The colors are usually red and white for right and left audio channels and yellow for composite video.
The theme for this weeks Macro Mondays entry is Backlit. A picture taken with back lighting.
I assure you that this picture is 100% in compliance, being lit by only one light source, and that source being behind the subjects in this photograph. No mirrors or reflective devices of any kind were used.
I am also fairly confident that a great many of you will instantly know how I setup and took this shot. If not, I will post an explanation at the close of entries for this weeks Macro Mondays posts.
HMM.
The setup
This picture is of two ordinary objects, a pen, and a small plastic bead, that have been lit from behind. The light source is slightly below the objects, and just out of frame to the right side of the picture.
The light source is what makes this picture special. It is an ultraviolet LED flashlight. Ultraviolet light is a form electromagnetic radiation (in the spectrum of light) whose wavelength is too short to be seen by the human eye. The ultraviolet light causes the objects to fluoresce. Fluorescence occurs when the plastics absorb energy from the ultraviolet light and then reradiate a portion of this energy at a longer wavelength that we can see. That is why the objects appear to be glowing. They are actually producing light within the spectrum that we can see.
The light is actually only hitting the top portion of both objects. After a little trial and error, I found out that if both objects were completely lit by the light, that they produced very strong internal reflections which created some very over exposed areas. You can see some of this effect if you look closely at the bottom edge of the bead.
Many people are familiar with ultraviolet light when it is referred to by its common name, black light. Many common things will fluoresce under ultraviolet light. Some minerals, soaps and detergents, different types of plastics, and even scorpions fluoresce when lit with ultraviolet. Oh and also just about anything that is a ‘fluorescent’ color. Think highlighter pens.
So as I have explained I was completely in compliance with the theme. No one said what type of light we had to use.
HMM.
I've got to get something out of my system. I love to do nature photography, and I think there is something important about getting out into it, finding beautiful subjects and scenes, and learning how to show them to people.
But as I continue to try to grow as a photographer, something about simple, abstract, geometric compositions draws me more and more. Learning to see this way even in ordinary objects somehow feels like an important step. Early indications are that it will influence my nature photography too.
Now that the fall leaves are fallen, and it's windy, and the sun is off toward the south, it is time to get seriously into it.
I know that when I follow a photographer I like and they suddenly change styles, it can be kind of a bummer. I hope you can all bear with me while I work this out.
Most of the time I stay at home and I will find any possible subject like this little flowers in my backyard.
I try converting it to B&W and I like B&W.
Your comments are much appreciated.
Excerpt from www.mtr.com.hk/en/customer/community/art_tkw_home.html:
Art in station architecture
Artwork Title:
Home
Artist Name:
Leung Mee-Ping (Hong Kong)
Artwork Location:
To Kwa Wan
Artist's Concept:
Tuen Ma Line has brought about significant changes to the To Kwa Wan neighbourhood. Old buildings are replaced by new high-rises. New tenants settle in and old neighbours move away. To those who call this place “home”, what are the implications of urban renewal?
The artwork “Home” is not only a work of visual art. It is a creative process that engaged the community from the conception of the project. A total of 102 To Kwa Wan residents generously shared personal items to illustrate their ideas of “home”. Each coming with a story, these seemingly ordinary objects are all loaded with fond memories and endearing sentiments.
Amidst changes in To Kwa Wan, the artwork “Home” encapsulates the visual imagery of individuals, families and a community in a conceptual framework. Like a time capsule, framed within floor plans of old tenement buildings, it preserves the residents’ homes. “Every object accompanies the growth of a person and a family,” says the artist. “They are material traces of time where individual memories come together as the communal visual culture of an era.”
Excerpt from www.mtr.com.hk/en/customer/community/art_tkw_home.html:
Art in station architecture
Artwork Title:
Home
Artist Name:
Leung Mee-Ping (Hong Kong)
Artwork Location:
To Kwa Wan
Artist's Concept:
Tuen Ma Line has brought about significant changes to the To Kwa Wan neighbourhood. Old buildings are replaced by new high-rises. New tenants settle in and old neighbours move away. To those who call this place “home”, what are the implications of urban renewal?
The artwork “Home” is not only a work of visual art. It is a creative process that engaged the community from the conception of the project. A total of 102 To Kwa Wan residents generously shared personal items to illustrate their ideas of “home”. Each coming with a story, these seemingly ordinary objects are all loaded with fond memories and endearing sentiments.
Amidst changes in To Kwa Wan, the artwork “Home” encapsulates the visual imagery of individuals, families and a community in a conceptual framework. Like a time capsule, framed within floor plans of old tenement buildings, it preserves the residents’ homes. “Every object accompanies the growth of a person and a family,” says the artist. “They are material traces of time where individual memories come together as the communal visual culture of an era.”
It's candy ;)
Delicious candy, at that!
The white is bright on purpose. I wanted a decent contrast between orange-white-orange.
Taken today along with some other candy photos but those can wait.
reached explore #16!
blogged on october 21st 2006.
Added to the Cream of the Crop pool as most favorited.
NO MORE GROUP INVITES/AWARDS. NO IMAGES IN COMMENTS.
While working on another challenge, I found that the pages from an ordinary book could be quite versatile. As hard as it was to tear the pages from this old book, I was really pleased with how awesome the paper roses looked when I was finished with them!
Quit trying to find beautiful objects to photograph. Find the ordinary object so you can transform it by photographing it. -- Morley Baer
Kern River
California
It's great if you are able to get a glimpse into the development of a building just by looking at its facade. Different structures meet, things get changed and what remains is a unique pattern on an ordinary object.
Barnstorf, Niedersachsen
All rights reserved ©
For #MacroMondays #Stick theme
I selected a very common stick to photograph for this theme. Sometimes an ordinary object becomes mesmerizing through the macro lens of a camera.
Thanks to Steve for a very interesting theme this week.
Excerpt from Hamilton.ca:
This project will be a monumental bead maze. This very joyous replica serves as a monument to childlike imagination and elevates a familiar object from the everyday to the exceptional. As a child’s toy, the bead maze provides a bright and cheerful outlet for children to play as well as develop their hand-eye coordination, visual tracking and colour recognition. Guiding wooden beads around the colourful wire maze can provide hours of stimulating fun. By changing the scale and context, this ordinary object takes on new meaning. In the plaza of the new James Street North GO Station this work will present itself as a quirky navigation tool, like a visual exercise in way finding and as a sculptural metaphor for mobility and transportation. The piece is comprised of 28 multi-shaped and brightly coloured beads made from powder-coated steel that are stationed along three distinctly formed metal tubes that animate by curving, snaking, and spiraling through space. The colour and shape of the tubing is particular to this location: a grey tube, which traces the city infrastructure; a blue tube that spirals around, giving form to the open air; and a Metrolinx green tube, that snakes directly through the sculpture, evoking the maneuvering possibilities of the train within the urban landscape. A bead maze is an early childhood toy, which demonstrates the mechanics of movement, transportation, and organization, while providing an emotional response of immediate delight. By scaling this universal toy up fifteen times, this sculpture will have a direct relationship to the body of the viewer and is designed to reinforce the various ways we connect with transportation. Beads are playfully positioned along the metal tubing as if they are swooping, sliding or have been brought to a complete halt. The organization of the beads suggests a network in motion, just like the daily train service from the new James Street North GO Station. James Street North is a well-known epicentre for culture and style in Hamilton and the North End is valued as a child and family-friendly neighbourhood. This sculpture will reinforce those distinctive qualities and will serve to engage the imagination of community members, commuters, visitors, families and children. While it might reference a way finding schematic the purpose of this sculpture is not to direct you to any specific location. Instead it works to incite a more whimsical way for you to imagine moving through space. This sculpture will make a lasting contribution as a cultural landmark to the new GO Station and to this great neighbourhood.
The AJAC challenge of the month was "Blast from the past" where we revisited past challenges. Take a look at our shots here : www.flickr.com/groups/ajac
"Ordinary objects"
Maple leaves in Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden Chinatown Vancouver.
I like the fresh green of these spring leaves.
Chinatown is one of the historic districts in Vancovuer. Here are my other shots of Chinatown Vancouver.
Nature is truly remarkable, there is pattern and order in the most ordinary objects that we see everyday yet don't notice.
Antique mailboxes still used in a small-town post office. I love the elegance in otherwise ordinary objects that used to be experienced by people in their daily lives.
The snow shovel handle scream - which is usually what I'm doing when I need to use it!
Happy Macro Monday everyone!
Introducing Arles and Europe to the work of Korean photographer HyongRyol Bak, Slow-Drawingshowcases his latest work Figure Project – a series aerial views taken after the artist applies physical alterations to ordinary objects in nature.
Bak’s work is a reflective attitude toward nature suffering from civilization. His previous work Captured Nature was a metaphor of human civilization retrogressing nature by shooting natural forms that are artificially seized. Figure Project connects with the behavioral side of this previous work where Bak creates the situation and nature is the main object.
Bak intervenes and transforms nature to sculpture that has perfect straight lines and side divisions which cannot be seen in nature. Adding sculptural characters to the form of the land, the aerial views erase the perspective and spaciousness of these characters, hiding their absolute scale. They emphasize photography as a two-dimensional medium and create an illusion of looking at a flat surface painting.
Figure Project captures the characters that still exist yet with no individuality in the space where sides and lines are completely filled. This series fulfills dual roles where each individual performs the sculptural form and resists the theatricality of it at the same time. This point actively reflects the artist’s question of how the nature could be accepted and existing in human awareness and the society. Thus, Bak himself adds his performance to the abandoned land and reinterprets the value of the land that was classified by the value of a human being.
Shot for round 55 of Get Pushed! I was challenged to create an abstract shot: "Can be anything really, an ordinary object/subject just abstracted in a way that it isn't obvious what it is."
AN ANALYTICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE "ART" ADVENTURE OF HUMANS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The concept of "art" is the field of creativity, the only feature of being human. As the artistic prowess of Artificial intelligence emerges in a fast-moving world, it raises questions we've never encountered before about what it means to be "human". What kind of a period will "art", which is the result of human concepts such as existence, society, communication, subconscious, emotions, imagination, intuition, love, sensitivity, impulse, instinct, dream, originality and of course, creativity, enter into a period with Artificial intelligence (AI)? With its revolutionary technology that will change production, thinking, lifestyles and the future, will artificial intelligence, which is designed to replace people in other fields of activity, be more creative than humans in the field of art and reach the competence to challenge the artist?
According to Hegel, art carries the spirit of the artist, who is transferred to matter and likens matter to himself. Well, since the products created by machines without a soul today are not generated by an artist, can they carry spirit and meaning?
For years, computer technology has already made an impact and contribution to visual arts with image technologies such as vector, bitmap, 3D, CGI as a tool that creates, processes and changes the image. Today, many smart image generators such as Stable Diffusion, DALL-E, Craiyon, Midjourney, Nightcafe Ai, etc. are software systems that can statistically evaluate themselves over large datasets containing millions of images, train themselves, and produce new images that are not included in the original dataset. Not just images, AI is already being used in other branches of the arts to create music, poetry, sculpture, stories, articles and films.
There are many new questions and concepts such as whether the products created by a system that has human skills but is not human are real works of art, whether programmers and machines will be accepted as artists, whether AI products can be included in the broad and general definition of art. Although there are objections, acceptances, doubts, different opinions, it has been met with great interest by the majority.
First of all, it is necessary to talk about the concepts of “Art” and “Artist”. In its most general definition, art is a reflection of the human mind and cultural evolution, an expression of creativity, way of thinking and imagination. The artist, on the other hand, is the one who makes art with the awareness of "being human", humanizes and shapes life, and realizes the phenomenon of art with action. The artist combines facts with aesthetic elements from a different point of view and records them in social memory. Behind his creative works lie deep stories of man, his age and society. He uses his imagination, patience, enthusiasm and self-sacrificing efforts to embed his passions, memories, dreams, imaginary and abstract ideas, symbols, philosophy and his inner world, the dynamics of the era and society he lives in, with aesthetic expressions. The process of creating the artist's art is complex and difficult, while filtering everything he is affected by and incorporating it into his works. He feels both sadness and happiness most deeply, and experiences his anxiety and pleasure at the highest level.
Art originates from life and human beings and belongs to humans. “Art is an object made by man for man. “ (E.H.Gombrich, The Story of Art) This is a very accurate definition and “Art” is based on a human-made phenomenon that takes its source from the human artist and seeks meaning with its historical, social accumulation and imagination; existence occurs in the unity of human, artist, meaning, aesthetic object and aesthetic taste. In this respect, there is a deep bond of existence between man, art and work of art that complements each other.
The artist searches for the meanings behind artistic intentions and desires and vital phenomena. Since AI is not a living, emotional being, it lacks imagination, the reality of its external world, and the qualities of being human. Unfortunately, those who claim in advance that the products of AI are art, underestimate the artist who realizes the thousands-year-old deep source of art and the artistic production process, and find it unnecessary to question the artist's effort and necessity. Decisions made by those who do not know the depth of the creative process, without entering the enthusiastic world of an artist, are in favor of accepting and affirming AI products without questioning them. We see that the capitalist world, which wants to benefit from the stimulating effect of the trade created by AI products, has great expectations to use this situation in its favor and turn it into money.
The production process of AI is formed by the combination of computer, programmer, data, algorithm, output, aesthetic taste of the receptive subject. Since AI does not perform its actions by focusing on aesthetic values, aesthetic harmony and meaning, the output it produces is only a sensory, aesthetic value uncertain, non-essential, formal object. Because it lacks the subjective point of view and the values of the special creation process in the mind of an artist. The software, which does not take its source from the human mind, does not have emotions, and produces from ready-made data, has the potential to produce likeable outputs. It can even produce outputs, albeit rare, that, by chance, can give aesthetic pleasure and cause emotional and artistic excitement in people. Again, it is the receptive subject himself who adds artistic value to such an output with his artistic disposition, education and dreams. Because, while the output is devoid of a communication basis, an expression to be conveyed and has no artistic value, the perception style, psychological orientation and point of view of the receptive subject who establishes the communication raise the output to the value of an object that gives aesthetic pleasure. The receptive subject participates in the process with its level of perception of the object, aesthetic judgment and creativity, and needs the qualities of its own self and visual capacity. With a subjectivist attitude, he takes the artistic value not from the object but from his own psychology, customizes the object with his own emotions and attributes a meaning to the output. What makes the output of AI valuable is not the qualities of the aesthetic object formed by the activity of an artist, but the way of seeing of the receptive subject.
The work of art is a human creation, the creative subject is the artist. The artist produces by adding meaning to his work, and the visible form has a meaning integrity, a unity of form and content. In his work, the artist formally expresses a reality about life in his work. That is, the meaning is not added after making the work, and the meaning exists as a substance in the mind of the artist before the work takes shape. In the work, the expression to be conveyed without communicating with the receptive subject is already present and ready; all this is hidden in the work as a reality and waits to be seen by a competent receptive subject. This is the process of discovery of the work of a spirit that repeats the aesthetic creation formed in the artist's soul. The receptive subject, who judges the output of artificial intelligence, lacks the pleasure and effort of creating, perceiving and recreating the expression level of the artist, that is, the human being. Because understanding and making sense of a work of art requires an effort like the creativity of the artist.
E.H. “We cannot hope to understand a work of art if we do not have the ability to share that sense of liberation and triumph that the artist has over his finished work,” says Gombrich.
We see that while art is realized with the connection of the artist, the work (aesthetics) and the receptive subject (aesthetic interest), the process in the AI product takes place with the connection of data, algorithm, object (sensory) and receptive subject (aesthetic interest).
Human art is the aesthetic relationship between man and objective reality and includes artistic reality. Its source is life, human, society, created by the artist, it focuses on the whole process and is holistic. It is based on the reproduction of the aesthetic values that the artist brings to the object by the receptive subject, the connections and interaction with the aesthetic judgment. It is directly and tightly connected to human practice, society and social life. The work of art is personal, original, and the artist has a compositional knowledge and skill that will require much more than repetitions, different blending and attachment techniques in AI output. In a way that takes its origins from life and focuses on the soul and meaning, art considers beauty as a unity of values. Like artificial intelligence, it focuses not only on the result, but also on the whole process, and this is what we need to distinguish.
Although AI is capable of creativity, this does not mean that it is an artist. Likewise, neither a programmer nor an algorithm is an artist. Because their production is outside of the vital, emotional, spiritual and meaning integrity we have explained above, they produce automatically and with commands. The algorithm does not create the object by considering artistic values, qualities and concerns, that is, the algorithm is not aware that it is dealing with art, so it is not conscious of reality. It scans the database and generates predictive compositions with the ability to fuse, add, subtract, associate and learn.
Artificial intelligence products can only be at the limit of the general definition of art. The creation process is automatic and is not identical with human art with the layers of existence it has; the source, formation and result are realized by a completely different method. Therefore, although it is ostentatious and surprising, it is an incomplete and experimental art (like) approach that is not competent.
Based on the context of reality, the search for meaning, the layers of existence and the social source of life, it would be appropriate to call it "Human Art" because it represents human beings, and "Artificial Intelligence Art" because it is created by codes. Because we cannot see artificial intelligence, which enters art as a separate actor, as if it is making productions of the same value as human beings and art. What makes human art valuable is that it tells its own story and the struggle for existence with the accumulation of thousands of years of creation process.
As AI enters more and more scientific, everyday and artistic and human fields, we have to make the rules, boundaries and definitions of human domain, arrangements, positioning and criticisms that include what human being is, to remain "human". The important thing is to create and place concepts that will preserve the depth, value, originality, creativity and freedom of the human domain. While doing this, we should determine the roles by defining the field that artificial intelligence, that is, the machine can have. For this reason, the categorical distinction was made as "Human Art" and "AI Art" because it was based on codes. To make both the same, to say that both achieve similar goals in different ways, is a disrespectful, unfair approach to art and the artist and should be objected to.
Of course, AI will enable artists to create new and original products through collaborative work as a resource to benefit from. With artificial intelligence in artistic creation, the artist can expand his creativity, get inspired, try new things, and also think of artificial intelligence as a collaboration tool. Even if the artist is involved in the creation process of the products created by this collaboration, even if he has the initiative, the use of AI based on the source codes will bring about discussions.
The approach to artificial intelligence products will also mean the sincerity exam of people. The artist and no one should not escape easily, and try to show stolen ideas or directly as his own work. It should not make an effort to reflect worthless products as if they are valuable.
Deciding whether the output has value and the quality of its connection with the art means reaching the big problem area in art. A wide variety of factors should be taken into account while making an aesthetic interpretation. Knowing who the work belongs to is also a factor that will affect our decision. Interpreting a work that is not clear by whom it was generated may cause exaggeration or vice versa, underestimation and incompleteness. Evaluating an object as artistic and beautiful is relative (apart from reconciliation with assumptions that make aesthetic judgment general and based on common feeling) and is difficult, but this is a mysterious and normal state of art.
Artificial intelligence will be an encouraging and supportive force with its ease not only for artists, but for everyone. In addition, the copyright problem of the entries that make up the database should be solved, and the rights of the artist and everyone else who does not want to be in the database should be respected.
It should never be forgotten that; The importance of painters and painting did not decrease with the invention of photography, the transformation of smart phones into talented cameras did not turn everyone into a photographer, AI cannot turn anyone into miraculous and fantastic artists, nor transfer talents.
While the subject is being discussed, painting is generally focused on because of its popularity. But how do we react when AI produces an image with details and visual quality indistinguishable from a real photograph? Especially when we compare it with documentary photography, the situation will become more complicated. At this stage, the values shaped in our aesthetic, emotional and imaginary world, which we judge the paintings, will not be enough. We will need to ask whether the photograph is based on objective reality, and we will build our judgmental values after the definition of reality. Because, as a document, that photograph is real, it reflects the state of the world while connecting the lived past to the future, it has a place and a story, it is direct, it is a human and social memory and transfers it to other generations. The photograph created by AI has no story, it only depicts unreal scenes with automatic editing, and the composition is created only with the ability to imitate. Such a photograph will not go beyond an image that only arouses technical admiration before the viewer. For this reason, I think that unmanipulated and documentary photography will become more valuable in the future. Because it will never lose its value as a tool that reflects reality and directly reflects events.
Can you consider William Turner's painting "The Slave Ship" separately from the historical, social, reality of the outside world and the dynamics of the artist's inner world? This painting is not just a painting, it is a work that has meanings far beyond the painting. Now let's imagine that a similar picture is generated by artificial intelligence. Even if pictorial values, light and composition are used appropriately, what historical, artistic, cultural, emotional value can it have? In other words, in the background of art, there are stories of life and a context, while artificial art has nothing to tell, it is a storyless phenomenon that is disconnected from the context of reality, as a product of a system under the control of virtual codes, and has no history.
In today's society, communication habits have changed, the world of possibilities has grown, and even magicalized. AI "image generators" give everyone the opportunity to be creative, and thanks to their amazing ability, they make this experience available to millions of people. Even a child who has learned to read and write can accidentally create remarkable products in front of his computer. It does not make anyone who can write keywords to the computer and who does not have artistic personality and creativity an artist and does not include them in art. Millions of people are attracted to this attractive game without age limit and are entertained by its amazing and strange results, as if they have achieved a magical power. It is more accurate to call them "experimental participants". It is a fact that outliers, complex, uncertain, surreal, mystical, imagination-stimulating images attract a lot of attention. Friedrich Schiller and his theory that art is a game come to mind. But in his theory, Schiller meant real art. Besides, art is a much more complex phenomenon than play.
Although the outputs are strange, unencountered, interesting and attractive, as they multiply uncontrollably in the internet environment, they have a high potential to turn into habitual, valueless, artificial, ordinary objects.
It is human beings who will stand against the destructiveness of technology and protect humanity. Being human, despite your shortcomings, is unique. Do we have the human intelligence, virtue, honesty, will, courage and plan to use the future to be a better human being “together” and to create a world based on beauty and equality? While AI becomes human, we never want a role change where people become automatic, ineffective and robotic.
Man interprets and makes sense of life with his art, resists against time, and transfers his relationship with life to the art environment in freedom with his searches and discoveries. Art is formed in reality through "labor" by the artist. All innovations and technological changes should never be allowed to trivialize art and artists. Because Artificial Intelligence lacks the human touch, love, impulses and, in short, a life.
Einstein said, "The criterion of being intelligent is not knowledge but imagination," and reconciling human imagination with intelligence.
akilalparslan.blogspot.com/2023/01/an-analytical-perspect...
This is 10 years ago taken in the winter.
How would it be like this winter?
Have a good Friday and great weekend!
The following is the sotry posted originally.
Weather forecast is saying that we will have snow fall in the weekend.
Reminds me the last few winters that we had plenty of snow in Vancouver.
This was taken in 2006 when I bought my first DSLR.
Sometimes I try to do B&W flower close up.
This is repost of my archive picture from 2010.
Wish you a great Thursday!
My sincere thanks to all the comments and favorites from my Flickr friends.
I have been playing with this B&W conversion many times. Whenever possible with the subject matter, I always try the B&W.
Hope to have your comments on this one too. Thank you.
I love macro a lot. Please feel free to comment on my other macro shots.
The May challenge was "Ordinary Objects". Take a look at the other shots here : www.flickr.com/groups/ajac/pool/