The Uncanny Valley

It's coming to be that time of the year that is equivalent to running into a burning building--Halloween--where people willingly make themselves vulnerable to their fears. I have been thinking about fear a lot lately due to my obsession with the very real terrors of Hurricane Irma and the movie "It" being released into theaters. It had me thinking a lot about fear.

I'm not really afraid of anything. However, I do get the willies, the creeps, the heebie jeebies, or whatever it is that you want to call that uncomfortable feeling of uncertainty. In another blog, I wrote about an idea sparked by William James where an egg--something you're familiar with in regards to aesthetics and placement--may seem bizarre and bewildering if you see it in the middle of the face of your clock or inside of a lightbulb. It's just not right, right? An egg? Inside a lightbulb? Is this reality?!

Welcome to The Uncanny Valley.

But I might be pushing things a bit because The Uncanny Valley Effect specifically involves humans and humanoid appearances. Put simply, it is the feeling of unease that arises when you notice something is off about the appearance of a human form. That moment you realize that the store greeter is a robot, that the person lurking in the shadows is a mannequin, and that your best friend's new girlfriend is a sex doll.

The valley in Uncanny Valley stands for a person's revulsion toward a human form that has something sorta off (or uncanny). There is a dip in the affinity a person feels toward a human form, as shown below.

Are you afraid of clowns? Mimes? Mascots? People on stilts? Furries? The physically handicapped? Little people? Giant statues? Ventriloquist dummies? Zombies? Dead bodies? Black face? Vaseline face?

Even though I claim to not be quite afraid of anything, I will admit that there were instances where I became creeped out by things that weren't really all that bad. Let's take the photo directly above, for example. It's an image of Tim from Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!. It's a very bizarre, late-night show featured on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. The comedy show is comprised of short skits that feature a primarily all-male cast, to the point where men even dress as women. I am very drawn to this show due to its very from-nightmare aesthetics. Ever have a nightmare that, when you woke up and thought about it, wasn't scary? That's how this show is for me. Seeing Tim sing into his microphone with vaseline, or whatever it is, on his face just freaks me out. Like a nightmare, there is no point to the vaseline and there isn't anything menacing about it. It's just there and that's all it takes.

There are plenty of psychological takes on what is called "the uncanny". Ernst Jentsch was one of the initial reporters on the uncanny, claiming that the uncanny isn't so much what something is, but what emotions are represented toward any given thing. I suppose this explains not only my boyfriend Brian's fear of snakes, but his revulsion at seeing images of them, as well. As an avid hiker, I come across snakes on the trail all the time and naturally photograph them. Considering that it's just an image and no way a threat to him, I send him the picture, but he gets freaked out, regardless. He gets so freaked out that he actually deletes the picture. He doesn't even have a traumatic experience involving snakes.This explains peoples' fear when watching horror movies. It's a movie and is no threat to you whatsoever, but your emotions are activated.

In order for the uncanny to be experienced, a certain amount of not-knowing needs to exist with a certain amount of knowing. Something new or novel needs to be added to something that is ingrained and authentic in your consciousness. Typically, that ingrained and authentic piece needs to be non-threatening and innocent. Something you might even love.

In this case, my boyfriend and my dog swapped faces in one of the beloved filters from Snapchat.

Here are a few more examples of The Uncanny Valley Effect.

This is a compilation of faces produced by MIT's "Nightmare Machine".

Image by Mario Klingemann.

Wax replica of Superman. (Fun fact: The curl of hair that falls upon a person's forehead is called a forelock.)

I've been reading a collection of stories that are "uncanny" and have become quite smitten with them. So, I have made a goal to write 100 similar 100-word stories by Halloween. Can I do it? We'll find out.

I'm looking forward to writing more blogs about fear this season.

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