Just because, part 17

a narrow fishIt’s been a long time since the last ‘Just because’ post, and I am truly ashamed. Or something. I am truly something…

This one has been kicking around in my blog images folder for a long time. It had been sized this way for a particular post, and I can’t even remember which one now, or what it was intended to illustrate. Other than, of course, being weird-looking as hell. And that’s the interesting bit, because this is not edited or distorted or anything – it’s simply a face-on portrait of some unknown fish species, shot in an aquarium. It gains an edge to its surreality by the contrast in lighting on the sides, but that’s about it.

While our pareidolia can detect faces from some pretty farfetched subjects, there is also an aspect where faces that aren’t quite right can be disturbing – many people find that the attempts to make dolls and robots seem lifelike produces seriously creepy results. I think this one falls someplace in the middle: quite far from what we’d expect a face to look like, yet realistic enough in the eyes and mouth to trigger the shivers in some. It has this distinctly disillusioned expression, as if discovering that there are no snickerdoodles left in the jar after all. I’ve always liked it for those aspects, even when there are too few uses for it.

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