May 18, 2016
On Identity
The “uncanny valley” is a theory in aesthetics suggesting that the close but not identical visual reproduction of human qualities can result, for certain viewers, in feelings of physical revulsion. The more lifelike the features, the greater the chance that certain spectators will experience unpleasant triggers—primary among them being an unbidden, sudden fear of death— which is experienced involuntarily but suddenly and deeply, like whiplash. Lifelike yet robotic, the avatars that populate movies and video games and even our homes are the destabilizing products of a fertile, if ultimately myopic, imagination: they’re designed to “resemble” the human form, a caricature of the normative.
Jessica Helfand’s book Design: The Invention of Desire, will be published on May 24 by Yale University Press. It is available by pre-order on Amazon. Signed copies are available through the Design Observer Shop.
Observed
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Observed
By Jessica Helfand
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