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
Tag: uncanny valley
Celebrities in The Uncanny Valley
Wired magazine recently posted a clever infographic: “Where Celebrities Fall in the Uncanny Valley.” I don’t want to take this one too seriously, and really just wanted to share it. It’s pretty funny…and also accurate. I think it’s really just an inside-joke at the expense of the Wired editor who is included on the chart.… Continue reading Celebrities in The Uncanny Valley
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
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
Video Games and the Uncanny Valley: Photorealism vs. Stylization
James Portnow and Daniel Floyd present a very articulate explanation of ‘uncanny valley’ theory for game developers in their animated lecture series for Edge-Online, “Video Games and the Uncanny Valley”. I particularly like the explanation of the pros and cons to the two strategies game designers and animators are using to approach the ‘problem’ —… Continue reading Video Games and the Uncanny Valley: Photorealism vs. Stylization
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
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
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