Pseudoscience

Physiognomy, the Beautiful Pseudoscience

Posted on March 28, 2018March 28, 2018 by MAMcIntosh

Untitled (Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, The Vexed Man, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA), 2008, Ken Gonzales-Day. Chromogenic print. Ken Gonzales-Day and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles. © Ken Gonzales-Day How the dubious science of deducing mental character from physical appearance influenced European art and culture in the 17th and 18th centuries. By Sarah Waldorf /[…]

Relics of Junk Science: Phrenology and Bally’s 19th-Century Miniature Plastic Heads

Posted on November 8, 2017 by MAMcIntosh

Set of sixty miniature heads used in phrenology produced by William Bally in 1832. Image Credit: Science Museum, London By Dolly Stolze / 09.08.2015 The Science Museum of London has a set of 60 eerie little plaster heads that look like miniature death masks. Johann Gaspar Spurzheim (1776-1832), a well-known 19th century phrenologist, commissioned these bizarre relics to help his students study phrenology. As[…]