Pareidolia

“Pareidolia - a nature exploration beyond facts”

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.

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 feeds the human imagination, beyond facts, beyond certainty, into poetic perception.

Watch an extract from Pareidolia live performance at The Sugar Factory, Vaasa. Finland 2025

Watch here