Fast forward through the 20th Century via the neuroscience of emotion; micro-expression experts in the NYPD; facial biometrics; Kim Kardashian; face transplants; lie detection “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”; cosmetic surgery and the Golden Ratio and the study of face and character in literature, beauty and art. Chairman Mao banned face reading as ‘feudal’ during the Cultural Revolution, but it has now re-emerged in the boardroom as well as the treatment room.
In a curious take on the windows of the soul, Strange-Face-in-the-Mirror, a 2010 study published in Scientific American, describes participants seeing ‘archetypal faces such as an old woman; a child or the portrait of an ancestor; fantastical and monstrous beings and animal faces such as a cat, pig or lion when asked to look into their own eyes in the mirror in a dimly-lit room for ten minutes. Neural adaptation and hallucinations aside, the strange-face-illusions seem to link in with physiognomic research through the centuries, core Chinese beliefs that the ancestors are still with us, and contemporary face reading.
Our faces reflect our DNA, our face-evolution from Neanderthals to genomics and cyborgs, and how we’re doing in the Here and Now. And eyes are like mini yin-yang wormholes: iris-portals to deep source-code memories stored in our design-helix-crystal and blood lines. They reveal Jungian archetypes in the unconscious; the Five Elements; past lives; traumas suffered by our grandparents, and beyond. These aspects connect with us through the light field. |
Back in the corporate office two thousand or so years later, facial features provide exceptional face-data on those who still wish 'to gain a position at the Imperial Court’, communicating, like handwriting analysis and Myers Briggs, more than what is committed to a CV: attitudes to career, team players (or not), workaholic/focussed or peripheral/big picture, risk taking or cautious, emotional or analytical traits are as plain as the eyes (brows, nose, and mouth) on your face. We've already had a look at the eyes of Jeremy Corbyn on this site to get a sneak peak at his job application. As an integrated system, the old Chinese idea of the Triangle, Phoenix, Dragon or Wolf-shaped eyes can still contribute to our modern human understanding and digital facial culture. But that's another blog......
So, look into my eyes. But not for too long.... Here be dragons? Or future selfies?