There is you. And then there is your alter-ego as constructed by all the hidden marketing that happens behind the scenes due to your social networking. You can try to control it through things like facebook’s latest privacy adjustment techniques. But as tech critic Sara M. Watson points out in a recent article in The… Continue reading Data Doppelgangers feature in The Atlantic
Tag: alienation
Maytag’s New Maytag Man – Renewing an Icon with Uncanny Magic
If you watch commercial television, you may have been surprised to see this year that the Maytag Man has gotten an extreme makeover. The Maytag Man — aka “Ol’ Lonely” – is one of those classic icons of advertising — as commonly known as Ronald McDonald, the Michelin Man and the Energizer Bunny — due… Continue reading Maytag’s New Maytag Man – Renewing an Icon with Uncanny Magic
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
Book Review: Blankety-Blank by D. Harlan Wilson
Blankety Blank: A Novel of Vulgaria by D. Harlan Wilson This disturbing read is a breakthrough work of fiction that deserves a spotlight on the literary landscape as one of the best works of experimental writing of the year, if not ever. The story is quite a mess, and difficult to encapsulate in a review,… Continue reading Book Review: Blankety-Blank by D. Harlan Wilson
Mock Band: The Simulation of Artistic Processes
Rob Horning‘s recent essay in PopMatters — called “Doomed to Dilettantism” — performs an alarming and fantastic excoriation of the trend toward substituting “professionalism” in the arts with “amateurism” by consumers. Ingeniously, Horning connects the proliferation of faux-artisan strip mall stores like Michael’s (the chain craft store “Where Creativity Happens”) to the consumerist propensity for… Continue reading Mock Band: The Simulation of Artistic Processes
The Uncanny Valley of Advertising
Russell Davies describes the invasiveness of advertising as approaching its own “uncanny valley” in a Nov 2007 post on his blog, advertising practitioner: It seems like we’re about to enter a period where our digital lives will be full of the online equivalents of those messages you find on your television when you check into… Continue reading The Uncanny Valley of Advertising
Twins on the Train to Weirdsville
Improv Everywhere has performed a fun uncanny experiment called “Human Mirror”: in it, a long line of identical twins sit in opposite seats in a subway car to catch commuters off guard. Here is the video from their site (if you don’t see it, it’s also available on youtube): The trick is fascinating, and provides a sly… Continue reading Twins on the Train to Weirdsville