Crytoscopophilia

Our ‘current virtual world’ has not been too difficult for me as it has allowed me to indulge in my longstanding passion – ‘crytoscopophilia’.  In the past I was embarrassed to admit that I suffered from it.  But now I revel in it – and I imagine that many of you have been ‘outed’ as unacknowledged crytoscopophiliacs too. The reason I hesitated to talk about it, was that ‘crytoscopophilia’ means: ‘an urge to look though people’s windows as you pass by their houses’ which is best done at dusk when the lights are on and curtains not yet drawn. Knowing this might have encouraged people to think that I was either a voyeur or a peeping tom.

I enjoy crytoscopophilia in the same way that many of us enjoy lifestyle programs. How often do we unashamedly watch ‘Grand Designs’ or ‘The Block’ or ‘Selling Houses Australia’? It is clear that I am not alone as Foxtel has had a Lifestyle Channel for many years and even the ABC promotes its lifestyle programs on ABC iview. I am neither a voyeur nor peeping tom, just fascinated by the way that people furnish their houses and conduct their lives.

Before there were online dating services and apps like ‘tinder’, ‘grinder’ and ‘bumble’ we would often get a ‘sense of someone’ by going to their place and looking at their books or record collection or things hanging on the walls, and also assess the orderliness or chaos of their lives. Today with the need to be separate from others, we get to ‘zoom’ into people’s houses and lives on a regular basis. The public persona is now inextricably linked to the private persona and what I find fascinating is how ‘open’ people are, and how little effort they go to, to curate their online presence. And, I don’t mean errant children or uncontrolled pets. Last night, I was bemused to watch the CEO of a major company conduct an interview in a ‘less than tidy’ bedroom.  As many of us will need to think about ‘curating’ our virtual selves, I have been exploring (and confirming) what our home environments say about us.  Here is what I have learned.

The living spaces of ‘very open’ people contain many and varied things. Displaying personal artefacts indicates a strong sense of self. Objet d’Art reference culture, history, exploration, ideas and inquisitiveness – and possibly a ‘look at me’ desire. However, while eclectic groupings indicate an imaginative and open personality, too many similar things might suggest obsessionality or even hoarding.

Lots of family photos indicate a nostalgic personality and a strong sense of connectedness with others. In these days, they also reference a longing for what is missing from our lives. Alternatively, a bare space could mean indecisiveness, fear of commitment, an unwillingness to share, a restricted creative inner world, or an absence of decorating ideas – unless you are a ‘confirmed minimalist’, or Alain de Botton, or have used social isolation to ‘Marie Kondo’ your life.

The bookshelves in the background can be very revealing. Oscar Wilde drew a connection between character and book choices when he said: “It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines who you will be when you can’t help it”. A study carried out by the University of Texas controversially suggested that taste in books, films and television correlated with certain personalities. As you browse the book spines be aware that books on cooking, religion and romance suggest ‘communality’; the classics, poetry and art indicate an aesthetic bent; a preponderance of non-fiction titles are found in the cerebral; and anything to do with horror, sci-fi, spy stories or eroticism are found on the shelves of the more ‘questionable’ elements in society.

Artworks also reveal a considerable amount about someone’s personality. Most people have a bias toward gentle, familiar paintings – lyrical landscapes and soft still lifes. Even-tempered, easy-going and optimistic people tend to prefer classical artworks. Introverts and more anxious people are more likely to have quiet or even melancholic art that lends itself to contemplation. Whereas extraverts are often drawn to art with ‘sensational elements’ including wild colours and forceful themes. This is where you will find ‘edgy’ contemporary, abstract or surreal art on the walls. And, of course, people who are familiar with and comfortable in the artworld will have works that reflect their journey and interests.

Eventually we might see each other in a ‘zoom meeting’. In my ‘curated virtual space’ I hope you will notice a bookshelf with art titles interspersed with curios collected on my travels, a glimpse of the courtyard garden with a modernist sculpture, and subtle mood lighting that creates an aura of thoughtfulness.  If I can’t achieve this, I will use one of the virtual zoom backgrounds included with the program – maybe aurora borealis?

I will finish with some artworks from the NGV Collection which appeared when I searched ‘interiors’. I have included works which do not have a person in them so that we can all imagine what the person would be like. This is, after all, the quest of the crytoscopophiliac!