Pareidolia is an ongoing artistic research and creation process by BIGUM+BJÖRGE.
Pareidolia takes the name from the psychological phenomenon of perceiving meaning, faces, forms, patterns, where none objectively exist. This instinctive act of seeing conjures a space where imagination overrides information, where the mind seeks symbols in the unknown. Developed in the deep, primordial forests of Finland during a three-month residency as part of the Nordic Baltic Analogue Adventure at Filmverkstaden (Vaasa, spring–summer 2025), the work is rooted in a direct encounter with nature’s raw material presence.
Excerpt from Pareidolia instalation and expanded cinema peformance at The Sugar Factory in Vaasa, during our residency at Filmverkstaden 2025
Instalation and Expanded Cinema Performance
Pareidolia takes on various formats and can be experienced as an expanded cinema performance or immerssive exhibition installation.
Using 16mm film projectors, handmade slides, mechanical shutters, layered analogue projection techniques and hand printed images. Pareidolia unfolds as a live performance of light, image, and sound. Ephemeral sculptural objects, created solely for the camera, are transformed through projection into flickering, shifting visions. What emerges is a surreal, immersive journey through natural abstraction and sensory suggestion. Pareidolia invites the audience into a realm where the forest does not explain itself, but instead triggers the fertile ambiguity of perception. “Pareidolia” is an exploration of how nature interacts with the human imagination, beyond facts, beyond certainty, into poetic perception.
Photo documentation from Pareidolia instalation and expanded cinema peformance at The Sugar Factory in Vaasa, during our residency at Filmverkstaden 2025
Excerpt from Pareidolia expanded cinema peformance at Zelluloid Resistance, Berlin 2025
Photos from Pareidolia expanded cinema peformance at Zelluloid Resistance, Berlin 2025
Optical Sound
The sound unfolds as a hybrid composition of live acoustic elements and a pre-composed soundtrack. Live sounds are produced using contact microphones attached to various
natural and found materials, amplifying their subtle textures and vibrations. Beneath this
layer lies a composed sound piece built from our field recordings and digitally generated sounds created with a spectral sound plug-in.
In this process, some of the same images that are projected visually during the performance are also used beforehand to compose the soundtrack. Light and image patterns are
translated into sound frequencies in a spectral sound engine. This approach draws on the
historical principles of early optical sound
technology while reimagining them as a
contemporary dialogue between image and sound; a meeting point where light becomes tone, and perception becomes resonance.
Photos from Pareidolia expanded cinema peformance at Zelluloid Resistance, Berlin 2025
Pareidolia- Full lenght documentation
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Pareidolia is a live expanded cinema performance by BIGUM+BJÖRGE.
The performance is named from the psychological phenomenon of perceiving meaning, faces, forms, patterns, where none objectively exist.
This instinctive act of seeing conjures a space where imagination overrides information, where the mind seeks symbols in the unknown.
Using 16mm film projectors, handmade slides, mechanical shutters and layered analogue projection techniques, Pareidolia unfolds as a live performance of light, image, and sound.
“Pareidolia” is an exploration of how nature feeds the human imagination, beyond facts, beyond certainty, into poetic perception.
Pareidolia - full lenght documentation of live expanded cinema peformance at The Sugar Factory in Vaasa, during our residency at Filmverkstaden 2025
Pareidolia full lenght documentation of live expanded cinema peformance at Zelluloid Resistance, Berlin 2025
