You see what you want to see.

I've stumbled across an old discovery once again. This time it is not from looking at clouds, or from staring at the repetitious pattern of flowers on my shower curtains, it's from a cover of an art book tucked away at the corner of the room, in the dark, with a little light shining on it. (Cover of art book shown on left.)
The technique to this form of art is what I call Scrying. I think the name is appropriate because it works in the same way, just with a different medium instead of smoke, crystal balls, or pools of water. I think this technique relies on a focused object to be blurred out enough to appear abstracted, so that your mind does not recognise what it is that it's seeing, that way, the imaginations fill in the void to create new images out of it.
To scrye from an image, all you need to do is be in a dark room with little lighting, squint your eyes to blur the image (not always necessary) and view it from far away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrying

The visions that scryers say they see may come from variations in the medium. If the medium is water ((hydromancy), then the visions may come from the colour, ebb and flow, or ripples produced by pebbles dropped in a pool. If the medium is a crystal ball, the visions may come from the tiny inclusions, web-like faults, or the cloudy glow within the ball under the low light (e.g. candlelight).

One method of scrying is using a crystal ball involves a self-induced trance. Initially, the medium serves as a focus for the attention, removing unwanted thoughts from the mind in the same way as a mantra. Once this stage is achieved, the scryer begins a free association with the perceived images suggested. The technique of deliberately looking for and declaring these initial images aloud, however trivial or irrelevant they may seem to the conscious mind, is done with the intent of deepening the trance state, wherein the scryer bears their own disassociated voice affirming what is seen within the concentrated state in a kind of feedback loop. This process culminates in the achievement of a final and desired end stage in which rich visual images and dramatic stories seem to be projected within the medium itself, or directly within the mind's eye of the scryer, like an inner movie. This overall process reputedly allows the scryer to "see" relevant events or images within the chosen medium.