Aleksandra Kovačević and Jelena Nikolić

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February 26th – March 14th

Apophenia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Apophenia /æpɵˈfiːniə/ is the experience of perceiving patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. The term is attributed to Klaus Conrad[1] by Peter Brugger[2] who defined it as the “unmotivated seeing of connections” accompanied by a “specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness”, but it has come to represent the human tendency to seek patterns in random information in general, such as with gambling and paranormal phenomena.[3] He coined the word “Apophänie” to characterize the onset of delusional thinking in psychosis. This neologism is translated as “apophany”, from the Greek apo[away from] + phaenein [to show], to reflect the fact that the schizophrenic initially experiences delusion as revelation.[4]

Notes

1 ^ Conrad, Klaus (1958). Die beginnende Schizophrenie. Versuch einer Gestaltanalyse des Wahns (in German). Stuttgart: Georg Thieme Verlag.
2 ^ Brugger, Peter. “From Haunted Brain to Haunted Science: A Cognitive Neuroscience View of Paranormal and Pseudoscientific Thought”, Hauntings and Poltergeists: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, edited by J. Houran and R. Lange (North Carolina:McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers, 2001).
3 ^ Hubscher, Sandra L. “Apophenia: Definition and Analysis”.dbskeptic.com. Archived from the original on 2012-07-16. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
4 ^ Mishara, Aaron (2010). “Klaus Conrad (1905–1961): Delusional Mood, Psychosis and Beginning Schizophrenia.”. Schizophr Bull 36 (1). pp. 9–13.

The work presented by the two artists is a video installation that deals with meaning; the existence, the logic of determination and its functionality.

The baseline of the work represents Disney’s feature animated films, apophenia and the internet.

Photo: N. Ivanović