36. Fussy eaters
37. Droodles
Droodle 1 might be:
- The sun setting between two hills at the end of a road
- A dragonfly with a big head
- Two birds holding a flower between their beaks
Droodle 2 might be:
- A leopard very close in your rear-view mirror
- An approaching asteroid field seen through a spaceship window
- A tub of rocky road ice-cream, from above
- Aerial view of people in a large jacuzzi
Droodles are a good example of “pareidolia”, the neurological tendency to see patterns in random shapes, like clouds or rock formations. This skill evolved to help us identify familiar or significant things in our environment. Often we imagine faces. Even tiny babies can identify a human face – a crucial survival skill.
Pattern-finding is also an excellent way to exercise creative and visual thinking. Leonardo da Vinci himself would examine stones or marks on a wall for inspiration, seeing battles, landscapes or funny faces. He considered this a way of "opening the mind and putting it upon the scent of new thoughts".
References:
Price, Roger (1953), Droodles
Sagan, Carl (1995), The Demon-Haunted World
Sarcone, G. Archimedes’ Laboratory