This Fall 2010 television commercial, Kung Shoe DSW (also archived on their corporate site), uses a clever pastiche of contemporary action and martial arts cinema to advertise Designer Shoe Warehouse‘s “Killer Boots.” It’s cute and funny and obviously an effective, eye-grabbing advertisement for the company, as artfully made as any Jan Svankmajer film. It is… Continue reading Kung Shoe
Category: Film
Cinematic manifestations of Das Unheimliche.
Lomography and the Uncanny
“Archaeological Photography, the Uncanny Valley, and Lomography” by Colleen Morgan touches on the way documentary images of archaeological sites use particular photographic techniques to produce an uncanny effect (whether consciously or not). I hadn’t heard of “lomography” before, which Morgan describes: “lomography…employs low-quality toy cameras for an intentionally “bad” photograph that is blurry, off-color with light… Continue reading Lomography and the Uncanny
A Choreography of Cameras: “Hibi No Neiro”
I discovered the “cover song” web podcast site, Coverville, earlier today, and was musing over the way in which one band’s version of another band’s overly familiar song can chime the chords of the uncanny. But then I saw this video for Sour’s “Hibi No Neiro” — which I don’t think is a cover song… Continue reading A Choreography of Cameras: “Hibi No Neiro”
The Oobleck Effect: Living Liquid
Last year, writer Jason Jack Miller shared with me a popular YouTube video of uncanny monsters born by placing a layer of water and cornstarch on a subwoofer. I find myself returning to these videos often, contemplating the animism made possible by the rhythm of sound and the chaos of vibration. This neat effect “animates”… Continue reading The Oobleck Effect: Living Liquid
Uncanny Adaptation and The Watchmen
One of the unique concepts I broach in The Popular Uncanny is the notion of doublement — a term I employ to refer to the uncanny regress that occurs when a textual double (such as a remake or other adaptation) foregrounds the capacity for media to reproduce or “double” itself. In a recent entry on… Continue reading Uncanny Adaptation and The Watchmen
Pop Phantasmagoria
Neat find: Professor Heard’s Magic Latern Shows is a traveling act that nostalgically recreates the “phantasmagoria” of the 18th & 19th centuries for contemporary audiences. (I learned about Heard’s show via his article, “The Lantern of Fear” published by Grand Illusions, a fun online shop for offbeat science toys, uncanny gizmos, and illusionary devices.) As… Continue reading Pop Phantasmagoria
David Lynch’s Doppelgangers
In psychology, the shadow is the part of the unconscious that swallows threatening information and experiences that a conscious mind cannot hold onto and, at the same time, remain functional. However, a periodic confrontation with the shadow is necessary for a healthy psyche. In a Lynch film it is often the job of some sort… Continue reading David Lynch’s Doppelgangers
TRON, Gaming and the Death Drive Crash
Software designer Daniel Wellman writes about an uncanny experience where a game he was programming seemed to come to life with a will all its own in his essay, “Real Life Tron on Apple IIgs”: One day, when Marco and I were playing against two computer opponents, we forced one of the AI cycles to… Continue reading TRON, Gaming and the Death Drive Crash
Hitchcock and the Uncanny Object
On Vanneman, Alan. “Alfred Hitchcock: A Hank of Hair and a Piece of Bone.” Bright Lights Film Journal 42 (Nov 2003). In the “Dead or Alive?” section of his photo essay, “Alfred Hitchcock: A Hank of Hair and a Piece of Bone,” mystery writer/film critic Alan Vanneman gives us a veritable slide show lecture that… Continue reading Hitchcock and the Uncanny Object
The Return of the Gaze in THE RING
On: “Looking For The Quintessential Scary Moment: Hughes’ Tiger, The Uncanny Valley and the Eye of Yamamura Sadako” by Adrian Bott (aka “Cavalorn”). 03/28/2004 The very first concrete thing I wanted to do with this weblog is call attention to one of my favorite weblogs — Stephanie Gray’s wonderful doctoral research project, “Exploring the Uncanny… Continue reading The Return of the Gaze in THE RING