Intention

On a larger scale, the idea is to see how visual and auditory illusions can trick people. I chose the auditory Pareidolia effect, which is our tendency to perceive a pattern when none exists. This effect is best known for hearing words from random sounds, but it can also be hearing different words from the words actually being said. A good example of the latter is the Phantom Words illusion, in which given sounds or syllables, a person may hear words that are not actually being said. The words they think they hear typically reflects their personality, psychological state, and etc. This YouTube video gives a good example of the Phantom Words illusion:

Another good example is the Electronic Voice Phenomenon, which in ghost hunting and parapsychology is the occurrence of sounds on electronic recordings that are interpreted as spirit voices.

The idea of this project is to see how this illusion is present in the world and in media. This is the first part of a two-part project; the next part, after studying examples in which auditory Pareidolia are used, is use the effect in my own digital media.  

Examples in the world

Someone tried to convert songs into midis in which the only midi track was a piano (the red compositions are the midi tracks, the blue are the original songs). Strangely enough, if you know the song, you may hear lyrics being sung despite there being no vocals. I heard it for the Pokemon theme song, which starts at 4:32. I didn't hear the words until the middle, but I could hear the words until the end.

In this case, people have accused the Minion toys from McDonald's Happy Meals are swearing. The Minionese language is made up of many languages and gibberish blended together. In the specific case of the Minion wearing orange, one of the phrases he says is "para la bukay," but some people believe that it is actually saying "what the f*ck." Personally, I can't hear any swearing, only gibberish. The quality of the sound is also terrible. The way this is caused by auditory pareidolia is that people interpret the sounds in a way that is relevant to them. For example, someone on a diet would be more prone to hear food-related words, while someone stressed or depressed would hear more negative words. To a certain extent, you hear what you want to hear.

Examples in Media/Art

The audiovisual artist Meta Sage uses a visual and auditory pareidolia to create images and "voices" to give the viewer an experience of being high. I've never been high, so I'm not quite sure what it feels like, but the comments have been pretty positive:

"This is how I see everything... Clouds, trees, tiles on my floor... Coffee stains on my shirt... They are all anthropomorphic creatures making funny faces... Sometimes they even wink at me. " 

"God his Dog and the Devil Lived"

"?wonk t'nod I kcuf"

In many EVP videos in which people find "spirit voices" in real life, such as in the video above, one tactic is using sounds which may sound like words, and then using text to make people hear certain words. The result is that we may actually hear the words from the sounds. In a test, I watched the video, seeing all of the text and hearing all of the noises, while my roommate only heard the video. I could hear the words that appeared on the screen, but my roommate only heard sounds that were sometimes words and sometimes just random noises. She never heard the words that appeared in the video.

Reflection

When I first discovered the auditory Pareidola effect, I was surprised that it very tied to drug hallucinations and EVP. When I first searched auditory Pareidola, most of the results I got were EVP videos. The slightly old case of the cussing Minion was also interesting, because I had heard about it before and thought it funny that some people actually thought the Minions were cussing, whereas I only heard gibberish. What's so interesting about the effect is that it is very dependent on the individual; their personalities, beliefs, and current situations will affect what they hear. At the same time, it is possible make people hear certain words that aren't actually there by giving them a suggestion. Especially in the case of the piano, if we know the song, we are conditioned to hear the lyrics, and our brain even helps us do that. In my own digital media, I think it could be used to either give a suggestion about what is being presented visually, or vice versa the visual could suggest a way to interpret the sounds.

Sources

http://www.theskepticsguide.org/curse-you-minions

http://www.thecredits.org/2015/07/meet-the-creator-of-minionese-the-language-of-the-minions/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/illusions-and-curiosities/200906/phantom-words

http://deutsch.ucsd.edu/psychology/pages.php?i=211

http://blogs.psychcentral.com/panic/2012/01/what-does-pareidolia-mean-and-why-is-it-dangerous/