FILM
Barnum Effect
Steve Hawley
Great Britain, 2007
MiniDV PAL (Video). 6min. Color. VOSC24:00h
Pantalla Hall CCCBSinopsis: The Barnum Effect was named after the famous showman P.T. Barnum, who believed that a spectacle should have something for every member of the audience, and used the human propensity for belief in vague statements in a mind reading act. In 1948 the effect was investigated by the psychologist Bertram Forer, who used random excerpts from horoscopes and tested them on his students, who rated the personality description produced as astonishingly accurate.
In the video, a series of statements are voiced by a narrator addressing the individual spectator, over a series of images shot in high definition video of a deserted salt pans. The seduction of the audience by the voice seems to question the seduction of the viewer by the hyperreal image itself.
