morning computer symbology

“Folk Traditions, Quotidian Items, and Spiritual Symbolism Merge in Haegue Yang’s Sensory Sculptures.“

A new scientific study is challenging long-held beliefs about Jackson Pollock and his iconic “drip paintings,” suggesting that the Abstract Expressionist may have embedded hidden images, or what researchers call “polloglyphs,” into his compositions. While some experts argue this is merely a case of pareidolia—seeing patterns in randomness—the findings reignite debate over the psychological depth and hidden symbolism in Pollock’s revolutionary art.

The researchers refer to these “recognizable” images as “polloglyphs,” and believe that they may have been camouflaged by Pollock’s “drip technique.” They claim, for example, that the 1945 work Troubled Queen can be rotated to reveal various images, including a “charging soldier holding a hatchet and a pistol with a bullet in the barrel; a Picasso-esque rooster; a monkey with goggles and wine; and one of the clearest images, the angel of mercy and her sword.”

I am enjoying “polloglyphs.”

By integrating data from four key fields—stone tool production, hunting strategies, symbolic behavior, and social complexity—the study argues that different human groups, including Neanderthals, pre-Neanderthals, and Homo sapiens, engaged in meaningful interactions.

“Symbology” should go next to “polloglyphs.” The protagonist of Dan Brown’s books is a “symbologist,” but Brown made up symbology. It’s a mix of iconography, semiotics and symbolic anthropology.

morning computer: some useful things first thing in the day.

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