I like to think I’m good at keeping up with research on the Uncanny, but somehow I missed an important event this June: IEEE Spectrum published the first complete English translation of Masahiro Mori’s highly influential article on “The Uncanny Valley” (originally published in what they call “an obscure Japanese journal called Energy in… Continue reading The Uncanny Valley: Expanded and Uncut! Notes on Mori’s Groundbreaking Essay
Category: Theory
Theoretical musings about the uncanny. Includes scholarship, articles, presentations, exhibitions and books on theories of The Uncanny.
The Transformative Power of Horror Film in Education
“The Transformative Power of Film” — online panel — 2pm est. TODAY — I’ll be discussing horror in the classroom:meridianuniversity.edu/index.php/comp… — Michael Arnzen, Ph.D (@arnzen) September 13, 2012 I’ll try to update this entry with the archives afterward, if you can’t attend. The panel, hosted by Christine Jarvis, and featuring Drs. Paul Armstrong, Michele Paule,… Continue reading The Transformative Power of Horror Film in Education
Review of Pea Green Boat (Spring 2012) — Special Issue on The Uncanny
Pea Green Boat is an online magazine of curious and compelling miscellany, publishing issues that collect articles and snippets on unique themes. The current issue of PGB (Spring 2012) focuses on The Uncanny. I should say up front that one of my articles, on “Eyebombing,” is reprinted from this very site. But PGB’s Uncanny issue… Continue reading Review of Pea Green Boat (Spring 2012) — Special Issue on The Uncanny
Stephanie Lay’s Uncanny Valley Research Project: Call for Participants
Stephanie Lay is researching the uncanny valley and is looking for participants to take a survey that rates the eerieness and humanness of an array of faces. The survey takes less than 20 minutes and will likely get you thinking about your own perceptions of what is and is not uncanny. Sign up at http://bit.ly/FaceExperiment.… Continue reading Stephanie Lay’s Uncanny Valley Research Project: Call for Participants
Transhumanism and the Second Uncanny Valley
The above schematic is an extension of the “uncanny valley” theory that futurist Jamais Cascio proposed in 2008: a “second uncanny valley” that occurs after culture moves into “transhuman” territory. I like this because it causes us to rethink the structure of “uncanny valley” theory through — uncannily — its mirror reflection, or double image.… Continue reading Transhumanism and the Second Uncanny Valley
The Uncanny Valley and Intellectual Uncertainty
Scientists are continuing to conduct empirical research into the theoretical assumptions of uncanny valley theory. A recent article in Digital Trends by Jeffrey Van Camp announces that “Scientists think they’ve figured out the ‘uncanny valley’. It’s based on a report from Science Daily about a recent brain study called “Your Brain on Androids” by Ayse… Continue reading The Uncanny Valley and Intellectual Uncertainty
The Uncanny Impulse to Collect
Freud discusses how dolls, waxworks and other doubles evoke the uncanny, but he was also interested in the uncanny as a fear of being taken over by forces external to the body that could in turn be confused with one’s sense of self. I feel that the impulse to collect, like other compulsions, seems to… Continue reading The Uncanny Impulse to Collect
The Uncanny Design of Robot Heads
While theories of the “uncanny valley” are debatable (see Hanson’s “Upending the Uncanny Valley” (.pdf)), the quest for human-like androids and automatons continue to compel their designers. At Carnegie-Mellon University’s anthropomorphism.org, I found an interesting early study of robot head design that shows how these designers sometimes make choices about when to make robots anthropomorphic… Continue reading The Uncanny Design of Robot Heads
Uncanny Digital Literacies: Defamiliarization in The Classroom
Just found this neat Prezi presentation on “Uncanny Digital Literacies” by Sian Bayne, from the ESRC seminar series on Literacy in the Digital University (University of Edinburgh, 16 Oct 2009). I like the free-floating zoomieness of Bayne’s presentation, but with an ‘absent’ presenter, it is a little difficult to make the ideas and images cohere.… Continue reading Uncanny Digital Literacies: Defamiliarization in The Classroom
The Monkanny Valley
News note: Monkeys, according to a recent study, behave similar to humans in the face of the Uncanny Valley. From the New Scientist: “These primates don’t participate in human culture, which suggests the uncanny valley has a biological basis,” says Karl MacDorman of Indiana University in Indianapolis. Wired magazine suggests that this means “the uncanny… Continue reading The Monkanny Valley