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Horror Vacui the Big Uneasy

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Horror Vacui the Big Uneasy WORDS MOLLY MANDELL language: Latin pronunciation: “Horror vack-yew-eye” Horror Vacui etymology: From horror meaning “fear” and vacui meaning “vacuum” or “empty space” meaning: In essence, horror vacui translates to “the more, the better.” The phrase originated with Aristotle in connection to nature but today is typically used in reference Otherwise known as kenophobia, to art and design. For Italian art critic Mario Praz, who was the first to associate the term this Latin term expresses more with interior design, horror vacui conjured Victorian-era rooms crammed with elaborate than a fear of blank spaces—it’s combinations of furniture, fabric and colors. also a compulsion to fill them. use: Horror vacui is a phrase for those at odds with the minimalist “less is more” mantra. It is not only a fear of empty space but also an uncontrollable desire to embellish it with intricate detail. Some may find an enthusiasm for patterns and polychromatic color schemes dizzying but, outside of the home, everybody experiences a little bit of horror vacui. After all, certain spaces, like the shelves that line grocery stores and libraries, are simply meant to be full. WORDS JULIE CIRELLI Places can feel creepy for a number of rea- another felt her leg pulled off her body. sons, many of which are not immediately As part of her research, Mary took a turn The Big obvious. Tingling spine? A strange sen- in the chamber. “Nothing really happened, sation that someone is lurking just out of except that I heard the ‘whoop, whoop’ of Uneasy view? In her book Spook: Science Tackles a police siren. I was disappointed that it the Afterlife, science writer Mary Roach ex- wasn’t more spooky—just a normal couple plores some of the scientific theories behind of whoops in a soundproof room with an Science writer Mary Roach why an otherwise ordinary place might feel orange Ski-doo helmet full of electromag- explores the science behind frightening or unpleasant. In the course of nets on my head.” why some seemingly ordinary her research, she came across two types of Next, Mary headed to Coventry places give us the creeps. naturally occurring phenomena—electro- University in the UK to meet with psycho- magnetic waves and low-frequency sound acoustics researcher Vic Tandy, who theo- waves—that are associated with feelings of rized that there was a connection between unease in a place. inaudible, low-frequency sound waves Among the scientists Mary interviewed called infrasound and “all manner of myste- for her book was neuroscience professor rious-seeming phenomena”—from blurred Michael Persinger of the Consciousness vision, “strange feelings in the stomach” Research Lab at Laurentian University in and clammy skin to unexplainable bouts of Ontario, Canada. Persinger discovered a emotional intensity. “Old buildings with correlation between reported hauntings thick walls can cause infrasound to build and unusually high levels of electromagnet- up,” Mary explains, “This could explain why ic waves. He suspected that certain electro- a basement might be creepier than a den- magnetic frequencies could trigger a con- tist’s office.” dition called temporal lobe epilepsy, which So why, if studies point to tangible causes mild seizures and can also—accord- reasons why we react negatively to a place, ing to Persinger—bring on hallucinations do people often automatically reach for su- of “an invisible, sensed presence.” pernatural explanations for feelings of eeri- To test his theory, he created a haunt- ness? “Because it’s fun!” says Mary. “Don’t ing chamber—a soundproof room in his you think it’s more enticing to believe in lab where volunteers’ brains would be plied ghosts than to believe in electromagnet- with electromagnetic waves. Of those who ic field activity or temporal lobe activity? volunteered to spend a few minutes in the Our lives are so ordered and explained chamber, nearly 80 percent experienced that there’s very little mystery in modern “hauntings.” One saw gray, colorless fig- human life. This holds the door open to ures floating along the room’s perimeter; the unknown.” 26 AGJEANS.COM 27 AG ADRIANO GOLDSCHMIED ADRIANO AG AG-Kinfolk_Sept_F_20160620.indd 1 6/20/16 1:16 PM.
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