The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy

Apophenia is the very human capability of making meaning out of the chaotic data of the world. It’s pattern recognition: Jesus on your toast. But Carl Jung advocated for careful attention to the phenomenon of coincidence. John C Lilly takes it one step further, saying coincidence should be read as a cue from the cosmos. Artists Clare Hammoor and Evelyn Walker celebrate apophenia, reflecting on their recent collaboration—a remounting of John Gilbert’s opera 'Rotation'. This essay looks at instances of meaning making, deliberate mystification, and lateral leaps; what they’ve come to call a parasociative process