Introduction to Definitions and Related Terms:
The feeling of horror is invoked within an audience when there is not a clear distinction between what is real and what is not.
Sigmund Freud first introduced the idea of the uncanny in his 1919 work The Uncanny, an essay about the psychological effects of the unfamiliar. Sigmund Freud suggests that, when found in “properties of persons, things, sensations, experiences, and situations,” it was the unfamiliar within the familiar that makes us uncomfortable (Freud 5). Freud describes that the feeling of uncanny is produced by anything that “arouses dread and creepy horror” (2). This is the idea that if something familiar is seen in an unfamiliar way, people tend to feel uneasy and frightened. Sigmund Freud explains the unfamiliar and familiar are noted within the boundaries of animate objects and inanimate: the feeling of horror is invoked within an audience when there is not a clear distinction between what is real and what is not. Freud’s uncanny is noted in multiple pieces of work: one being in relation to Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto- an essay about the connection between cyborgs and reality- and the other within the film industry’s exploitation of the uncanny valley.
The uncanny valley is a diagram that consists of the relationship between how human a corpse, animal, or robot looks like.
The uncanny valley is a deep slope in which inanimate objects look as if they are animate. Many of these objects look as if they could be human but are not human so they create an uncanny feeling amongst an audience. The uncanny valley is a diagram that consists of the relationship between how human a corpse, animal, or robot looks like. For the purpose of this research project, we will be focusing on humanoid robots within the slope. Many of these robots fall into the valley due to their uncanny appearance and movements; many having realistic features and body movements that are not mechanical or seemingly move as if it was effortless.
