Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Uncanny'
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1
MARTINS, JULIA TEITELROIT DE SOUZA. "THE UNCANNY-ER IS THE UNCANNY." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2012. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=30152@1.
Full textAbstract:
PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIROCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR
PROGRAMA DE SUPORTE À PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO DE INSTS. DE ENSINO
O estranhador é o estranho consiste na investigação do gênero narrativo denominado Estranho (Unheimliche), avançando para uma proposta de caracterização e ampliação do gênero a partir da identificação de sua poética. Nesta defesa, foram consideradas teorias e exemplos da literatura e do cinema e também conceitos fundamentais da psicanálise.
The uncanny-er is the uncanny consists of an investigation of the narrative genre known as Uncanny (Unheimliche), culminating in a proposal of characterization and enlargement of the genre by identification of its poetics. In this dissertation, theories and examples from literature and cinema were taken into account, as well as fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis.
2
Kyianenko, D., Ірина Анатоліївна Морозова, Ирина Анатольевна Морозова, and Iryna Anatoliivna Morozova. "Uncanny valley." Thesis, Sumy State University, 2020. https://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/77879.
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Sometimes humanoid-like robots or computer characters evoke fear. This is because we know that they are only created to look like people. For example: robot Sophia looks like a real person, but it can’t move naturally, it moves like a robot and sometimes it scares. This phenomenon is called "Uncanny Valley" and it was introduced in the 1970s by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori. Mori loved designing robots and the more he learned, the more realistic his creatures looked. But he noticed that the simpler the robots were the more positive reaction they evoked but the more realistic or human-like they became, the more people got scared of them.
3
Tucker, Willard Ross. "The Industrial Uncanny." The Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1250549784.
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4
Lay, Stephanie. "The Uncanny Valley Effect." Thesis, Open University, 2015. http://oro.open.ac.uk/43340/.
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The Uncanny Valley Effect (UVE) first emerged as a warning against making industrial robots appear so highly human-like that they could unsettle the real humans around them. It proposed a specific pattern of negative emotional responses to entities that were almost but not quite human, and has been proposed as the reason why some entities such as dolls, mannequins and zombies may appear unsettling. The aim of this thesis was to move beyond an anecdotal explanation to understand more about the perception of near-human faces, and how this compares to the perception of human and non-human faces. The aims were to explore the relationship between the human-likeness of faces and emotional responses to them, to understand reactions to and descriptions of near-human faces, to explore aspects of how near-human faces are processed and to explore whether mismatched emotional expressions might contribute to the perception of some near-human faces as eerie. Five studies were carried out using face images whose human-likeness was systematically controlled or measured. A non-linear relationship between human-likeness and eeriness was found, but the near-human faces were not always the eeriest images. Near-human faces were found to be subject to the effects of inversion, and inversion was found to heighten perceptions of eeriness. Faces were created which contained mismatched emotional expressions, and the blends combining happy faces with angry or fearful eyes were rated as the most eerie. Incongruities between aspects of appearance or behaviour had been cited as explanations for the UVE in the past but this thesis presents the first evidence that differences in eeriness may result from incongruities between emotional expressions. Directions for future research have been suggested to explore these findings in a wider context and to understand more about the UVE.
5
Clanton, Carrie B. "Uncanny others : hauntology, ethnography, media." Thesis, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 2017. http://research.gold.ac.uk/20111/.
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This thesis presents my study of “ghosthunting”—the practice of attempting to capture ghosts, primarily using cameras and audio recorders—as a metaphorical device for the use of audio-visual media within anthropology. I conducted fieldwork with ghosthunters, paying particular attention to their attendant audio-visual media practices and outputs, in order to redress the reluctance of anthropology to a) evaluate audio and visual media as mechanisms for producing anthropological critique—although some anthropologists have taken pains to do that with writing—and b) to understand the particular "haunted" history of audio-visual media as being related to critical anthropological concerns such as representation, time, and the other. The history of the use of audio-visual media within ghosthunting follows a similar trajectory to that of anthropology, and the resultant methodologies and outputs of both disciplines function in ways that are less inclined towards discursive “speaking with others” than they are towards attempting to produce demystified representations of others. Neither practice has, in contemporary times, acknowledged the historical connection of audio-visual media to the supernatural, nor its capacity to deal with the uncanny as a critical provocation. My study of ghosthunters shows that despite attempts to reify ghosts via photography, audio, and film, those media are themselves devices that maintain the uncanny as an ethical injunction towards the other—whether as ghosts or as the cultural “other” of anthropological critique. An acknowledgement of the “haunted” origins and capacities of media allows for ethical engagements with anthropological others, ultimately suggesting critical media methodologies for anthropology that, while informed by anthropology’s “crisis of representation,” radically differ from written ethnography. Viewing the relationship of media and anthropology through the lens of Derrida’s hauntology is a useful framework for thinking about media methodologies that can stand as critique.
6
Almaraz, Steven Michael. "UNCANNY PROCESSING: MISMATCHES BETWEEN PROCESSING STYLE AND FEATURAL CUES TO HUMANITY CONTRIBUTE TO UNCANNY VALLEY EFFECTS." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1487623424211977.
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7
Grizzle, Eric Tait John. "Exploring fear and Freud's The uncanny." [Denton, Tex.] : University of North Texas, 2007. http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-3666.
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8
Harris, William. "The uncanny in everyday urban life." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1983/0fc830ab-e240-42af-beb7-6257c2b1e2fb.
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9
Consbruck, Ryan. "The Uncanny: Disassociative Forces in Architecture." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1427900167.
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10
Grizzle, Eric. "Exploring Fear and Freud's The Uncanny." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2007. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3666/.
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Fear is one of the oldest and most basic of human emotions. In this thesis, I will explore the topic of fear in relation to literature, both a staple of the horror genre as well as a device in literary works, as well as in my own writings. In addition, I will use Sigmund Freud's theory of the “uncanny” as a possible device to examine the complexities of fear and its effects both on the mind and body through the medium of literature, and, more specifically, where and how these notions are used within my own short stories. By exploring how and why certain fears are generated, we may be able to better examine our own reactions in this regard.
11
Lipman, Caron W. "The domestic uncanny : co-habiting with ghosts." Thesis, Queen Mary, University of London, 2008. http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/28168.
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The 'haunted home' has enjoyed a long-standing position as a motif within society, crossing a span of narratives, from anecdotal local stories shared informally between family and friendship networks, to the established Gothic traditions of literature and film. This project uniquely examines the ways in which people who believe their homes to be haunted negotiate the experience of co-habiting with ghosts. It is a qualitative study which has applied a mix of creative methodologies to a number of in-depth case studies in England and Wales. Geographers and researchers in related disciplines have recently expressed interest in the idea of ghosts or haunting, but have tended to focus upon public metropolitan spaces, and to employ the ghost as a metaphor or social figure. In contrast, this project contributes to a growing literature on the material and immaterial geographies of the home, the intangible and affective aspects of everyday life within the particular context of the domestic interior. The project explores the insights uncanny events experienced within this space reveal about people's embodied, emotional, spatial and temporal relationships with 'home' as both physical place and as a set of ideals. It studies the way in which people negotiate experiences which appear to lack rational or natural explanation, and the interpretative narratives employed to explain them. It suggests ways in which different forms of belief influence interpretations of uncanny events. It also suggests ways in which inhabitants of haunted homes negotiate the co-habitation with ghosts through a number of strategies which reinforce their own subjectivity in the face of potential encroachment into their private space.
12
Windsor, Mark. "What is the uncanny? : a philosophical enquiry." Thesis, University of Kent, 2016. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/61811/.
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From Edgar Allan Poe's macabre tales of mystery, to David Lynch's nightmarish visions of American suburbia, to Rachel Whitread's haunting casts of interior spaces, the uncanny represents a significant aspect of art and culture. Following Freud's famous essay on the topic, the uncanny is typically characterised as an unsettling ambivalence between the familiar and the unfamiliar. But beyond this broad characterisation, it seems that no one is able to say exactly what the uncanny is. This thesis aims to plug this gap by offering an original account of the uncanny. While I reject Freud's theory of the uncanny in terms of the 'return of the repressed', I develop aspects of Freud's more often overlooked theory of 'surmounted primitive beliefs'. I use philosophy of emotion to provide a framework for defining the uncanny-specifying the way that an object is experienced by the individual such that it elicits the emotion of uncanniness. What all uncanny phenomena share in common is that they are incongruous relative to what is believed to be possible: waxwork figures appear to be both animate and inanimate; doppelgangers and twins appear to be the same individual; strange coincidences appear to not merely be coincidences. This incongruity causes an uncertain threat to one's grasp of reality. I define the uncanny as an anxious uncertainty about what is real caused by an apparent impossibility. I elaborate the definition by examining in detail each of the four key concepts that comprise it: reality, impossibility, uncertainty, and anxiety. I discuss fictional cases where the object is not experienced as real, but rather fictionally experienced as real. I discuss two subsets of uncanny phenomena, which I call 'uncanny narratives' and 'uncanny pictures'. And finally, by way of conclusion, I offer some brief remarks on the 'paradox of the uncanny'- the question of why, when the uncanny is essentially a negative emotion, it is also something that we often find attractive.
13
Tastan, Coskun. "The Uncanny Object: A Lacanian Analysis Of Xenophobia." Master's thesis, METU, 2003. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/1044858/index.pdf.
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The study aims to define xenophobia, which is attached such meanings as &lsquohostility against foreign people&rsquo
or &lsquo
fear of alien people&rsquo
, through the main concepts of Lacanian Psychoanalysis. The &lsquo
fear of/hostility against foreign people&rsquo
is treated, in this study, by references to the subject-object relation formulated in Psychoanalysis. The study aims to give an original account of the spiral of subject-object through such concepts as &lsquo
polarization&rsquo
, &lsquo
annexation&rsquo
, and &lsquo
ergonomy&rsquo
. Under the light of this account, an attempt follows to recast the term xenophobia. The analysis focuses on three main historical lines, to check the account of the term set down in the study, as well as to fortify and clarify its limits: Capitalism, industrialization and nationalism. As a conclusion, the study maintains that both xenos (stranger) and fear dwell within the subjective field. Accordingly, the study concludes that xenophobia originates not from the &lsquo
primary qualities&rsquo
of the object of fear/hatred (xenophile), but from the deepest ranges of the subjectivity of fear/hatred (xenophobe). Hence, it is asserted that xenophobia is a subjective delirium, rather than an objective form
14
Stypinska, Diana. "Critique today : the persistence of an uncanny concept." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2016. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.722590.
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From Kant onwards critique has been central not only to philosophy but to all social and political thought. Today, however, the critical imperative seems to have culminated in an intellectual dead-end. Paradoxically, therefore, we are experiencing an excess of criticism (wherein everything is subject to constant critique) together with a conviction in the impossibility of the radical change of our current socio-economic system (in spite of escalating social, political and economic conflicts). This predicament of non-consequential criticism has captured the attention of many contemporary sociologists who proclaim the crisis of critique and the need for its revival. However, while they all agree on the indispensability of proper critique, the various sociological approaches differ as to their understanding of critique’s content and form, producing further ambiguity and complexity. Taking this problematique as its starting point, this project seeks to elaborate on critique as a paradoxical and essentially contested concept, aiming at articulating a new conceptual framework apt for the analysis of the contemporary (dis)positions of critique, as well as explaining its crisis. The thesis is divided into two parts. Part l ‘The Idea of Critique’ locates the origins of Western conceptions of critique by using Foucault’s archaeological method. This archaeology is utilized in the pursuit of critique’s genealogy which is, in turn, employed to develop a conceptual framework capable of explaining different modalities of critique. Part 2 ‘Critique Today’ uses these conceptual tools to analyse the status and mode of operation of contemporary critique in the fields of social theory and aesthetics. It proposes that critique’s uncanny character is the result of the interplay of two distinct critical imperatives, namely, that to the securitization of the status quo and that to its qualitative transformation.
15
Chapman, Olivia. "Dark reflections : Nineteenth-century luminism and the uncanny." Thesis, University of York, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.533538.
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16
Botha, Darryn Nicolas. "Zwartkoppies dairy : celebrating the uncanny affair of milk." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/30102.
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This dissertation addresses the relationship between life, time and architecture. It places the notion of memory within a changing landscape that stimulates remembrance; manipulating physical, functional, and sensorial experiences. As time changes and memories blur; there is a nostalgic longing for the creation of place to be used as a tool which both captivates and exhibits history and memory – a mnemonic machine exuding adaptation over time. The conceptual exploration sets a platform for celebrating the beauty and delight found in the poetics of the dairy production process, employing architecture as a tool to physically manifest the mystifying realm of the engagement between man and beast. The proposed site is identified within the historical precinct of Zwartkoppies, on the original farmstead of Sammy Marks, located on the eastern periphery of Pretoria. Situated in the life of the everyday - the site offers a platform for transformative practice within a mutable and flexible landscape. Through superimposing a highly mechanised process within a historic and weathered fabric of industrial memory, the programme intends to highlight the notion of a model farm typology, allowing the farmstead to once again be activated as a platform for training and experimentation.Dissertation MArch(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2012.
Architecture
MArch(Prof)
Unrestricted
17
Lindmarker, Patrik. "Kusliga karaktärer : Orsak och uncanny valley inom animation." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för informationsteknologi, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-18606.
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Uncanny valley är en teori som föreslår att humanoida objekt som brister i sin liknelse till riktiga människor framkallar känslor av kuslighet och motvilja hos observatörer. Uncanny valley inkluderar inte enbart grafiska humanoida objekt utan även till exempel verkligt existerande humanoida robotar och verklighetstrogna dockor. När det gäller tredimensionella humanoida karaktärer beror det på balansen mellan karaktärens utseende och animationsstilen. Ser karaktären väldigt verklighetstrogen ut förväntar vi oss att den rör sig på ett verklighetstroget sätt och ifall den är stiliserad förväntar vi oss att den rör sig på ett stiliserat sätt. Om inte karaktärens utseende och animation passar tillsammans kan det framkalla känslor av kuslighet som beror på uncanny valley .Ett problem är att spelutvecklare kan av misstag eller okunskap skapa animationer som inte har en bra balans även om det var tänkt att ge betraktaren en uppfattning av harmoni mellan utseendet av den tredimensionella karaktärsmodellen och animationsstilen. Det inkluderar även det grafiska uttrycket. För att förebygga att liknande problem uppkommer i framtiden bör man ställa frågan om uncanny valley kan dokumenteras och klargöras tydligare för att skapa en mer uttrycklig definition av fenomenet inom animationshantverket så att framtida misstag kan undvikas.Den här uppsatsen ämnar att skapa en definition av uncanny valley och dess orsaker inom animationshantverket samt ifall man kan avsiktligt använda uncanny valley för olika ändamål. En studie kommer att genomföras i vilken olika människors subjektiva tolkning av uncanny valley och dess koppling till tredimensionell animationsstil kommer att undersökas. Undersökningen kommer att bestå av försök att framkalla de känslor som uncanny valley är känt för. Studien genomförs för att få reda på ifall det är möjligt att avsiktligt framkalla känslor av uncanny valley hos en betraktare i ett försök att få en stiliserad karaktär att framstå som mer skrämmande eller kuslig än den annars skulle vara.
18
Garrison, John. "The Contemporary Uncanny: An Architecture for Digital Postmortem." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1617109466087914.
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O’Neill, Fiona Katherine. "Uncanny belongings : bioethics & the technologies of fashioning flesh." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.445485.
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Kokoli, Alexandra Marianthi. "'Pourquoi sorcières?' : second-wave feminism and the uncanny." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.398758.
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Crawte, Derrin. "Darkness visible : contemporary stop motion animation and the uncanny." Thesis, Anglia Ruskin University, 2017. http://arro.anglia.ac.uk/702164/.
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This thesis seeks to demonstrate that the uncanny and stop motion animation enjoy a special relationship, one characterised by a sense of darkness becoming visible. A range of scholars, including Barbara Creed, Tom Gunning, and Laura Mulvey, have recognised that film is capable of embodying the dark fears and concerns related to the collapsing of boundaries and merging of oppositions that are characteristic of the uncanny. Stop motion, this research argues, is a form that is written through with uncanniness. Stop motion animation is especially capable of conveying an experience of the uncanny because of the technical processes through which an impression of movement and life is created from stillness, inertia and death. The thesis explores its claims through in-depth investigation of Sigmund Freud’s 1919 essay on the uncanny, and a range of critical and literary texts and intertexts - including the work of Edgar Allan Poe, Stanislaw Lem, John Milton and Georges Bataille - which engage with different aspects of the uncanny, the death drive, and the human psyche. In tandem with these thinkers, the thesis investigates the work of filmmakers who have shown a willingness to fully engage with the darkness inherent in stop motion, and with the phenomenon of the uncanny, including Shinya Tsukamoto, Jan Švankmajer and the Quay Brothers. Collectively, this thesis argues, these writers, thinkers, and visual artists articulate a common interest in the darkness that characterises both the uncanny and stop motion: a predilection for rendering darkness visible.
22
Kitayama, Karen. "Projecting the uncanny : the intersection of visuality and architecture." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103434.
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Thesis: M. Arch., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2016.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (page 93).
This thesis explores architectural drawings and representations appropriate to describe forms and spaces in zero and artificial gravity. Its focus is on the physical forces associated with life and motion in a rotating environment and the formal and geometric architectural response to those forces. Orthographic drawing relies on a flat plane onto which lines are statically inscribed. This project hopes to speculate on an alternative drawing that can help to describe habitation and the uncanny experience of life in space. Without the constraints of gravity, architecture is no longer forced to have plumb walls, that floors, or ramps with specific ratios. Zero gravity presents itself with its own challenges of disorientation and visual confusion. This project will juxtapose the effects of zero gravity with the spaces imbued with artificial gravity generated by centripetal force. Human experience in outer space is tied to feelings of disorientation and distortion. This project seeks to understand these perceptual changes in order to adapt the human body to a new way of seeing. The visualization of movement through the presence of the human body and its role in orientation and perception will set the parameters for an experiential representation of life in space.
by Karen Kitayama.
M. Arch.
23
Fenichel, Teresa. "Uncanny Belonging: Schelling, Freud and the Vertigo of Freedom." Thesis, Boston College, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104819.
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Thesis advisor: Vanessa RumbleThe aims of my dissertation are 1) to explicate what I take to be the philosophical foundations of Freudian psychoanalysis with the aid of Schelling’s contributions to the development of the unconscious and the nature of human freedom and 2) to make use of certain fundamental discoveries of psychoanalysis in order to reinterpret Schelling’s dynamic and developmental vision of reality. My claim is that Schelling’s philosophy not only offers an important historical moment in the development of the psychoanalytic account of the unconscious, but also gives us a vision of human development—and indeed the development of Being as such—that is grounded in the unconscious and the activity of the drives. Where Freud is often viewed as a determinist, through a closer examination of the connections Schelling makes between the unconscious ground of existence and human freedom we can begin to open up the space for a more complex Freudian subjectivity. Furthermore, the advances Freud makes in terms of the structure of the unconscious, his work on the altered temporality (most notably Nachträglichkeit, or “afterwards-ness”) of trauma and repression, also serve to bring some of Schelling’s most abstract and speculative work to both a more practical and philosophically relevant level. In the work of both Schelling and Freud, the relationship between the human subject and the reality such a subject “confronts” is radically transformed. In Schelling, we find that the developmental phases of Being, of the Absolute and of Nature are also manifested in the structure of human becoming; that is, the catastrophic divide between subjective experience and objective reality is bridged by reinterpreting both as dynamic processes. Although Freud himself often has recourse to a more static view of “objective” reality, his work also speaks to a deep and disturbing revision of such a view. Indeed, Freud’s continued questioning of the boundaries between fantasy and reality, between the internal and the external, suggest that the irreducible otherness of the unconscious extends beyond the individual
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Philosophy
24
Alexander, Jane. "The contemporary uncanny : an exploration through practice and reflection." Thesis, Northumbria University, 2018. http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/36241/.
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My Creative Writing thesis comprises a collection of uncanny short stories that explores social, psychological and physical impacts of advances in science and technology, and a critical-reflective exegesis. Using a research methodology that critically examines insights emerging from creative and reflective practice, the thesis as a whole addresses the question of how the short story can be used as a particularly appropriate mode to illuminate contemporary experiences of science and technology through the creation of uncanny affect. The exegesis offers a definition of contemporary uncanny fiction; the stories test a range of thematic, stylistic and formal strategies for achieving uncanny affect. The resulting creative work suggests a contemporary technological uncanny is one that develops and extends Freud’s conceptualisation of das Unheimliche. Chapter 1 establishes the theoretical background to my practice research, providing a historical overview of the uncanny as a phenomenon and literary mode. Chapter 2 draws on Gothic and posthuman studies and psychoanalysis, and short stories by China Miéville, Nicholas Royle and Ali Smith, to explore the implications of insights emerging from my short stories: notions of an ‘uncanny of the virtual gaze’ and the body as site of impact for science and technology characterise a technological uncanny particular to our age, and comprise an original contribution to dialogues and debates theorizing a contemporary uncanny. Chapter 3 applies these notions to the practice of creative writing, to investigate the impact of its location in the academy. Finally, Chapter 4 extends existing narratological theory to suggest how second person is a particularly uncanny narrative mode, and examines issues of form, voice, structure and sequence to contend that short fiction is an especially effective form for the creation of uncanny affect – at the level of the individual story, and the collection as a whole.
25
Crawte, Derrin. "Darkness visible: contemporary stop motion animation and the uncanny." Thesis, Anglia Ruskin University, 2017. https://arro.anglia.ac.uk/id/eprint/702164/1/Crawte_2017.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis seeks to demonstrate that the uncanny and stop motion animation enjoy a special relationship, one characterised by a sense of darkness becoming visible. A range of scholars, including Barbara Creed, Tom Gunning, and Laura Mulvey, have recognised that film is capable of embodying the dark fears and concerns related to the collapsing of boundaries and merging of oppositions that are characteristic of the uncanny. Stop motion, this research argues, is a form that is written through with uncanniness. Stop motion animation is especially capable of conveying an experience of the uncanny because of the technical processes through which an impression of movement and life is created from stillness, inertia and death.
The thesis explores its claims through in-depth investigation of Sigmund Freud’s 1919 essay on the uncanny, and a range of critical and literary texts and intertexts - including the work of Edgar Allan Poe, Stanislaw Lem, John Milton and Georges Bataille - which engage with different aspects of the uncanny, the death drive, and the human psyche. In tandem with these thinkers, the thesis investigates the work of filmmakers who have shown a willingness to fully engage with the darkness inherent in stop motion, and with the phenomenon of the uncanny, including Shinya Tsukamoto, Jan Švankmajer and the Quay Brothers. Collectively, this thesis argues, these writers, thinkers, and visual artists articulate a common interest in the darkness that characterises both the uncanny and stop motion: a predilection for rendering darkness visible.
26
Storey, Jacqueline Anne. "The camera obscura and the pursuit of the uncanny." Thesis, University of Gloucestershire, 2005. http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/3142/.
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This practice based research seeks to explore and extend the potential of camera obscura projections to perceptually transform objects and spaces by using their unique visual qualities. These pertain to immediacy and directness. Although apparently tangible, the projected images appear to reside in a void where there is an absence of surrounding visual reference. This causes the images to appear disconnected from any context, thereby prompting associations with Freud's notions of the uncanny and Proust's narrative of the transitional. The research consists of a sequence of practice based studies. These commenced with an exploration into the perceptual ambiguities of reflection and shadow. Perceptual ambiguity was further explored through the distorting effects of curved pinhole cameras. The latter began to suggest using the camera itself as an object within which something could be viewed. With the incorporation of focusing lenses, this led to projections where the observer was situated within the camera obscura. Throughout the research, the objects projected were always ordinary and familiar, commencing with a light bulb. The addition of lighting sequences thus enabled further exploration of various phases of ambiguity, as well as enhanced definition and recognition of the projected image. This was followed by projections of other objects, which sought to place them in a particular visual context; for example a mug projected into' an actual microwave located within a kitchen. Although this produced surreal connotations, the surrounding visual material diluted the impact of the projected image. A decision was therefore made to concentrate entirely on the presentation of the projected images by refining projection techniques to enhance their quality and definition. The introduction of movement subsequently heightened perceptual ambiguity, as did the addition of the multiplication of images. This led to a rich variety of projected imagery which ranged from the perceptible to the imperceptible, involving synchronicity, transparency, juxtaposition, transposition from line to plane, and contrast between stasis and movement. The increasingly extraordinary images prompted a reevaluation of the observer's visual assumptions. These practical investigations, together with historical, literary, and philosophical issues, combine to extend the possibilities of the camera obscura in terms of contemporary artistic practice.
27
Frigeni, Veronica. "Quest(ion) of sense : Tabucchi's poetics of the uncanny." Thesis, University of Kent, 2018. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/66316/.
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This research project originally contributes to the analysis of Antonio Tabucchi's oeuvre by proposing an interpretation of his poetics through the perspective of the uncanny. Existing literature, despite having detected a presence of the Freudian unheimliche in the writer, has not developed this observation into a wider reading and problematisation of Tabucchi's poetics. It has been my aim in this thesis to fill this gap, through a comprehensive analysis of Tabucchi's works and a descriptive interpretation of his poetics. The present research takes its cue from the observation of two undisputable, interrelated facts. First, there is a threefold presence by the uncanny in the works of Tabucchi: diegetic (the uncanny in Tabucchi), narrative (the uncanny through Tabucchi) and theoretical (Tabucchi and the uncanny). Second, this uncanny is not necessarily and solely equivalent to Freud's unheimliche - and this is where/why Agamben comes in. Using Agamben in reading Tabucchi lets surface a philosophical enquiry within his works that would remain otherwise overlooked. Tabucchi's philosophical enquiry is precisely the uncanny emergence of signification itself in literature (the uncanny as poetics), in relation to the ontological (or metaphysical) view of men as creators of sense. Thus, drawing on Agamben's theorisation of the concept, the uncanny is defined, throughout this study, as a signifying function and a process of semiosis, which, far from being reducible to a catalogue of themes and motifs, occurs as the structuring of sense in and through the literary text.
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Vo, Khanh Van Ngoc. "Uncanny Objects: The Art of Moving and Looking Human." W&M ScholarWorks, 2016. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1477068487.
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Automata ("self-moving" machines) and reborn dolls (hyperrealistic baby dolls) individually conjure up questions of dynamic and aesthetic realism--external components of the human form as realistically represented or reproduced. as simulacra of humans in movement and appearance, they serve as sites of the uncanny exemplifying the idea in which as varying forms of the cyborg imbue them with troubling yet fantastical qualities that raises questions about our own humanness. My first essay, “Automaton: Movement and Artificial/Mechanical Life” directly addresses the characteristics that define humanness, principally the Rene Descartes mind-body dichotomy, by tracing the evolution of mechanical life, predicated as much on movement as consciousness, via the construction of automata. “Dis/Playing with Dolls: Stigmatization and the Performance of Reborn Dolls” takes the discussion a step further and examines people’s reactions when objects that look human are treated like human. I compare observable behaviors of dolls owners via social mediums like videos posted on YouTube, message boards, blogs, and news sources with responses by observers of this type of doll play, and superimposing a theory of play over this interaction. Whether or not automata and reborn dolls are socially accepted as signifiers of humanness, they already exist within our social space and reality. It is the recognition and acknowledgement of their presences in our everyday life and their agency that puts them squarely in the discourse of life.
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Theodoridis, Pavlo, and Kalle Elofsson. "The Uncanny Valley, musik och uppfattningen av virtuella karaktärer." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för informationsteknologi, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-17185.
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I detta examensarbete har vi undersökt hur musik kan påverka människors perception av virtuella karaktärer. Det har gjorts i relation till något som kallas för The Uncanny Valley, en term som myntades av robotforskaren Dr Masahiro Mori (1970). Denna term beskriver obehagskänslan som framkallas i människor av robotar och virtuella karaktärer som försöker, men inte riktigt lyckas, vara helt mänskliga. Arbetet tar upp hur The Uncanny Valley har uppmärksammats av kritiker, spel- och karaktärsdesigners och forskare. Dessutom inkluderas tidigare forskning kring hur musik kan påverka människors känslor och uppfattning av visuella stimuli. Vi har undersökt musikens roll i visuell perception om virtuella karaktärer genom en kvantitativ enkät och kompositionen av två stycken baserade på dissonanta respektive konsonanta musikaliska intervall, för att se om dessa förstärker eller förminskar uppfattningen om The Uncanny Valley. Resultatet av arbetet indikerar att musiken påverkade deltagarnas uppfattning.
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Murillo, Edwin. "Uncanny Periphery: Existential(ist) Latin American Narratives of the 1930s." Scholarly Repository, 2009. http://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/oa_dissertations/267.
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This dissertation investigates the narrative practice of Latin American Existentialism. My project tracks the structures, themes, and interpretations of Existentialism across national borders in the belief that a common expression exists which is distinctly Latin American. I begin this philosophical cartography, with four Existential(ist) novels produced in Latin America during the 1930s. Specifically, I will examine the Existentialist quality of Enrique Labrador Ruiz's El laberinto de si mismo (1933), Maria Luisa Bombal's La ultima niebla (1934) and La amortajada (1938), and Graciliano Ramos's Angustia (1936). These narratives are analyzed in relation to the core thematic of Existential philosophy. I read these narratives as Existential(ist) because they are of, relating to and characterized by a philosophy of existence, and because they simultaneously produce an Existential discourse. My study is, at one level, comparative in that I pursue the points of emergence of Existentialism's prominent categories not only across national borders, but also across disciplines. I relate the tradition of Latin American thought in the first half of the 20th century and Existential philosophy from Europe to collectivize the thematic points of contact. These I contrast with our literary production of the 1930s. By emphasizing the particularities and continuations of Latin America's contribution to the Existential canon I, in effect, periodize an era which is foundational in the history of Latin American literature. Furthermore, by acknowledging the literary presence of Latin American Existentialism we can appreciate the explicit narrative interrogation of the Self through aesthetic, ethical, and ontological parameters.
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Pirok, Alena R. "The Common Uncanny: Ghostlore and the Creation of Virginia History." Scholar Commons, 2017. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6929.
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Ghost stories have a long and diverse history, they appeared in religious contexts, in secular traditions, in entertainment, and in therapy and healing. Few elements of human culture have been as dynamic as the idea that the dead return to the living world as immaterial beings. Since the late nineteenth century Virginians have used ghost stories to talk about, interpret, and understand the historical significance of place. This dissertation argues that Virginians have used ghost stories to identify and make meaning of historical sites since the turn of the last century. These historical ghost stories sought to highlight the presence of the past, as well as Virginians’ close relationship with long-dead historical figures. Virginias used the ghost stories to argue that the commonwealth’s old structures and cities were especially historical and worthy of restoration. Founders of historical sites in Virginia used ghost stories as a way to offer their guests emotional, intimate, and personal connects to the celebrated past. The stories erased the distance of time, and suggested that past and present people cohabited in specifically defined historical places. Scholars who study historical sites often focus on the transition from volunteer to professional museum and public history workers. They argue that the professionalized workers rejected and silenced the public’s emotional understandings of place-based history, gave rise to more nuanced understandings of the field, and developed rich discussions on the roles that race, class, and gender play at historical sites. In that turn scholars have tended to ignore the publics’ emotional fascinations with historical sites, as seen through ghost stories. This dissertation illustrates that hauntings’ meanings and associations outlasted the professional turn and not helped establish the public’s trust in professional historical institutions, but continue to do so in the present day.
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Brown, Fuller Molly. "The uncanny and the postcolonial in J.R.R. Tolkien's middle-earth." Honors in the Major Thesis, University of Central Florida, 2013. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETH/id/828.
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Concluding on this note, the thesis argues that reading The Lord of the Rings in this way renders postcolonial concepts accessible to a whole generation of readers already familiar with the series, and points to the possibility of examining other contemporary texts, or even further analysis of Tolkien's to reveal more postcolonial sensitivities engendered in the texts.; This thesis examines J.R.R. Tolkien's texts The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King from a postcolonial literary perspective. By examining how these texts, written at the decline of the British Empire, engage with the theoretical polemics of imperialism, this thesis takes a new look at these popular and widely regarded books from a stance of serious academic interest. The first chapter examines how certain characters, who are Othered temporally in the realm of Middle-earth, manage to find a place of narrative centrality from the defamiliarized view of Merry, Pippin, Samwise, and Frodo, uncannily reoccurring throughout the narrative in increasingly disturbing manifestations. From there, the thesis moves on to uncanny places, examining in detail Mirkwood, Moria, Dunharrow, and the Shire at the end of The Return of the King. Each of these locations in Middle-earth helps Tolkien to explore the relationship between colonizer, colonized, and fetishism; the colonizer(s) disavow their own fears of these places by fetishizing the pathways they colonize for their safe passage. Since their paths are unsustainable colonially, these fetishes cannot fulfill their function, as the places are marked with unavoidable reminders of wildness and uncontrollability which cannot successfully be repressed for long. Ending this chapter with a discussion of the hobbit's return to the Shire, the argument moves into the next chapter that discusses the small-scale colonization that takes place in the heart of Frodo himself, making the Shire he used to know firmly unavailable to him. The Ring, in this case, is the colonizer, doubling, fracturing, and displacing Frodo's selfhood so that he becomes unfamiliar to himself. The uncanniness that this produces and Frodo's inability to heal from his experience with the Ring, this thesis argues, echoes the postcolonial themes of irreconcilability and the fantasy of origin.B.A.
Bachelors
Arts and Humanities
English
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Racadio, D. S. "The comic, the grotesque and the uncanny in Charles Dickens." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.280064.
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Tharib, S. "An investigation into the uncanny : character design, behaviour and context." Thesis, Bournemouth University, 2013. http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/21383/.
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Whilst there has been a substantial amount of research into the uncanny valley, defining research that contextualises a character as they would normally be viewed remains an unexplored area. Often previous research focused solely on realistic render styles giving characters an unfair basis that tended towards the realistic, thus facilitating only one mode of animation style: realism. Furthermore, characters were not contextualized because researchers often used footage from previous productions. These characters also differed in quality as various artists worked on different productions. This research considers characterisation as three key components, the aesthetic, the behaviour and the contextualisation. Attempts were made to develop a greater understanding of how these components contribute to the appeal of a character within the field of 3D computer animation. Research consisted of two experiments. Both experiments were conducted using an online survey method. The first experiment used five different characters ranging from realistic to abstract. Each character displayed three different behaviours and the characters were contextualized within a six panel narrative. Data obtained from the first experiment was used to refine the second experiment. A further experiment was conducted to further define how combinations of different behaviours and the context containing a character affected the subject’s perception. The second experiment used three different character types and the characters were contextualized within a video stimulus. Findings from the first experiment indicated a strong relationship between character type and context. Interest with the various characters changed depending on adaptions to either the behaviour of the said character or the contextualisation. Certain character types based on appearance where better suited to different contexts than others. An abstract character was more likely to be perceived positively by the subject in a surprising context stipulated by the behaviour of the character and form of the narrative sequence. Other characters such as one based around an inanimate object found a greater positive reception with the subjects under sad contextual constraints rather than happy or surprise. The first experiment took into account various independent variables obtained from the subject and aimed to draw parallels if found between these variables and the subjects perception of a given character be it positive or negative. However, these variables namely gender, nationality and age had no effect on the subject’s perception. In the second experiment, it was found that in order for the realistic human character to be perceived more positively, the behaviour needed to match the context. When a mismatch occurred the subjects began to perceive the character more negatively. The cartoon character was however not affected by the mismatch of behaviour and context. The experiment was further expanded when two different character types were compared committing negative actions and having negative actions inflicted upon them and what effect it had on the subjects perception. It was found that a cartoon character committing a negative action was perceived positively whilst a human character committing the same act was perceived negatively. However, when a negative action was inflicted on these same characters, subjects were more concerned for the human character than the cartoon character. Results from both experiments confirm the idea that various characters are perceived very differently by the viewers and come with predefined notions within the viewer of how they should behave. What is expected of one character type is not acceptable for another character type. Cartoon characters can get away with bizarre behaviour. A real human character may have some sort of novel unusual behaviour, whilst a realistic CG human character is assessed on how realistically (normally) it behaves. This research expands upon previous research into this area by offering a greater understanding of character types and emphasising the importance of contextualisation.
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Poole, Catherine G. "Dissociative Anonymity: Performative Photography and the Use of Uncanny Disguise." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2016. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/787.
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In my thesis project, I aim to explore the ways in which we can perform parts of our identity by hiding the body through the use of performative disguises. These characters transgress the boundaries between societal norms and abject interactions. In these costumes, I hope to find whether or not the multiple facets of our identities can be distilled into one character--whether the self can be shifted into another character for a constructive narrative.
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Krige, Nadia. "Hybridity, the uncanny and the stranger : the contemporary transcultural novel." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1876.
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Thesis (MA (English))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: During the past century, for a variety of reasons, more people have been crossing national and cultural borders than ever before. This, along with constantly developing communication technology, has seen to it that clear-cut distinctions, divisions and borders are no longer as easily definable as they once were. This process, now commonly referred to as ‘globalisation,’ has led to a rising trend of ‘multiculturalism’ and ‘cultural hybridity,’ terms often connected with celebratory views of our postmodern, postcolonial world as a colourful melting pot of cultures. However, what these celebratory views conveniently avoid recognising, is that the increasing occurrence of hybridity places a growing number of people in a painful space inbetween identities where they are “neither just this/nor just that” (Dayal 47), “neither the One… nor the Other… but something else besides” (Bhabha Commitment 41). Perhaps in an effort to combat this ignorance, a new breed of authors – who have experienced the rigours of migration first-hand – are giving voice to this pain-infused space on the periphery of cultures and identities through a developing genre of transcultural literature. This literature typically deals with issues of identity closely related to globalisation and multiculturalism. In my thesis I will be looking at three such novels: Jamal Mahjoub’s The Drift Latitudes, Kiran Desai’s Inheritance of Loss, and Caryl Phillips’ A Distant Shore. These authors move away from an idealistic, celebratory view of hybridity as the effortless blending of cultures to a somewhat disenchanted approach to hybridity as a complex negotiation of split subjectivity in an ever-fracturing world. All three novels lend themselves to a psychoanalytic reading, with subjects who imagine themselves to be unitary, but end up having to face their repressed fractured subjectivity in a moment of crisis. The psychoanalytic model of the split between the conscious and the unconscious, then, resonates well with the postcolonial model of the intrinsically fractured hybrid identity. However, while psychoanalysis focuses on internal processes, postcolonialism focuses on external processes. Therefore, I will be making use of a blend of psychoanalytic and postcolonial concepts to analyse and access discursive meanings in the texts. More specifically, I will use Homi Bhabha’s concept of ‘hybridity’, Freud’s concept of the ‘uncanny’, and Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of ‘the stranger’ as distinctive, yet interconnected conceptual lenses through which to view all three of these transcultural novels.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In die afgelope eeu het meer mense as ooit vantevore, om ‘n verskeidenheid redes, lands- en kultuurgrense oorgesteek. Tesame met die voortdurende vooruitgang van kommunikasietegnologie, het dit tot gevolg dat afgebakende grense, skeidings en verskille nie meer so maklik definieerbaar is as wat hulle eens was nie. Hierdie proses, waarna in die algemeen verwys word as ‘globalisering’, het gelei tot die groeiende neiging van ‘multikulturalisme’ en ‘kulturele hibriditeit’. Dit is terminologie wat dikwels in verband gebring word met feestelike beskouings van ons postmoderne, post-koloniale wêreld as ‘n kleurryke smeltkroes van kulture. Wat hierdie feestelike beskouings egter gerieflikheidshalwe verkies om te ignoreer, is die feit dat die toenemende voorkoms van hibriditeit ‘n groeiende aantal mense in ‘n pynlike posisie tussen identiteite plaas waar hulle nòg vis nòg vlees (“neither just this/nor just that” [Dayal 47]), nòg die Een… nòg die Ander is… maar eerder iets anders buiten.. (“neither the One… nor the Other… but something else besides” [Bhabha Commitment 41]). Miskien in ‘n poging om hierdie onkunde die hoof te bied, is ‘n nuwe geslag skrywers – wat die eise van migrasie eerstehands ervaar het – besig om met ‘n ontwikkelende genre van transkulturele literatuur ‘n stem te gee aan hierdie pynlike ‘plek’ op die periferie van kulture en identiteite. Hierdie literatuur handel tipies oor die kwessies van identiteit wat nou verwant is aan globalisering en multikulturalisme. In my tesis kyk ek na drie sulke romans: Jamal Mahjoub se The Drift Latitudes, Kiran Desai se Inheritance os Loss en Caryl Phillips se A Distant Shore. Hierdie skrywers beweeg weg van die idealistiese, feestelike beskouing van hibriditeit as die moeitelose vermenging van kulture na ‘n meer realistiese uitbeelding van hibriditeit as ‘n ingewikkelde vergestalting van verdeelde subjektiwiteite in ‘n verbrokkelende wêreld. Al drie romans leen hulle tot die lees daarvan uit ‘n psigo-analitiese oogpunt, met karakters wat hulself as eenvormig beskou, maar uiteindelik in ‘n krisis-oomblik te staan kom voor die werklikheid van hul onderdrukte verbrokkelde subjektiwiteit. Die psigo-analitiese model van die breuk tussen die bewuste en die onbewuste weerklink welluidend in die post-koloniale model van die intrinsiek verbrokkelde hibriede identiteit. Terwyl psigo-analise egter op interne prosesse toegespits is, fokus post-kolonialisme op eksterne prosesse. Derhalwe gebruik ek ‘n vermenging van psigo-analitiese en post-koloniale konsepte om uiteenlopende betekenisse in die onderskeie tekste te analiseer en hulle toeganklik te maak. Meer spesifiek gebruik ek Homi Bhabha se konsep van hibriditeit, Freud se konsep van die ‘geheimsinnige / onheilspellende’ en Zygmunt Bauman se konsep van ‘die vreemdeling’ as kenmerkende, maar steeds onderling verwante konseptuele lense waardeur aldrie transkulturele romans beskou word.
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Syme, Neil. "Uncanny modalities in post-1970s Scottish fiction : realism, disruption, tradition." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/21768.
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This thesis addresses critical conceptions of Scottish literary development in the twentieth-century which inscribe realism as both the authenticating tradition and necessary telos of modern Scottish writing. To this end I identify and explore a Scottish ‘counter-tradition’ of modern uncanny fiction. Drawing critical attention to techniques of modal disruption in the works of a number of post-1970s Scottish writers gives cause to reconsider that realist teleology while positing a range of other continuities and tensions across modern Scottish literary history. The thesis initially defines the critical context for the project, considering how realism has come to be regarded as a medium of national literary representation. I go on to explore techniques of modal disruption and uncanny in texts by five Scottish writers, contesting ways in which habitual recourse to the realist tradition has obscured important aspects of their work. Chapter One investigates Ali Smith’s reimagining of ‘the uncanny guest’. While this trope has been employed by earlier Scottish writers, Smith redesigns it as part of a wider interrogation of the hyperreal twenty-first-century. Chapter Two considers two texts by James Robertson, each of which, I argue, invokes uncanny techniques familiar to readers of James Hogg and Robert Louis Stevenson in a way intended specifically to suggest concepts of national continuity and literary inheritance. Chapter Three argues that James Kelman’s political stance necessitates modal disruption as a means of relating intimate individual experience. Re-envisaging Kelman as a writer of the uncanny makes his central assimilation into the teleology of Scottish realism untenable, complicating the way his work has been positioned in the Scottish canon. Chapter Four analyses A.L. Kennedy’s So I Am Glad, delineating a similarity in the processes of repetition which result in both uncanny effects and the phenomenon of tradition, leading to Kennedy’s identification of an uncanny dimension in the concept of national tradition itself. Chapter Five considers the work of Alan Warner, in which the uncanny appears as an unsettling sense of significance embedded within the banal everyday, reflecting an existentialism which reaches beyond the national. In this way, I argue that habitual recourse to an inscribed realist tradition tends to obscure the range, complexity and instability of the realist techniques employed by the writers at issue, demonstrating how national continuities can be productively accommodated within wider, pluralistic analytical approaches.
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Vones, Katharina Bianca. "Towards the uncanny object : creating interactive craft with smart materials." Thesis, University of Dundee, 2017. https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/2d9a7303-4fd7-4110-ae83-6438904108a5.
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The increasing prevalence of digital fabrication technologies and the emergence of a novel materiality in contemporary craft practice have created the need to redefine the critical context of digital jewellery and wearable futures. Previous research in this area, such as that presented by Sarah Kettley (2007a) and Jayne Wallace (2007), has provided the foundations for further enquiry but has not been advanced significantly since its inception. The artistic research presented in this thesis focuses on how smart materials and microelectronic components could be used to create synergetic digital jewellery objects and wearable futures that reflect changes in the body of their wearer and their environment through dynamic responses. Laying the foundations for a theory of Interactive Craft through evaluating different aspects of creative practice that relate to responsive objects with a close relationship to the human body is at the centre of this enquiry. Through identifying four distinct categories of wearable object, the Taxonomy of the Wearable Object is formulated and clearly delineates the current existing conceptual, technological and material perspectives that govern the relationships between different types of wearable objects. A particular focus is placed on exploring the concept of Digital Enchantment and how it could be utilised to progress towards developing the Uncanny Object that appears to possess biological characteristics and apparent agency, yet is a fully artificial construct. The potential for the practical application of a design methodology guided by playful engagement with novel materials, microelectronics and digital fabrication technologies is analysed, taking into account Ingold’s concept of the textility of making (Ingold, 2011). Through exploring the notion of the Polymorphic Practitioner in the context of Alchemical Practice, a model for experiential knowledge generation through engaging in cross-disciplinary collaboration is developed. This is supported by a qualitative survey of European materials libraries, including accounts of site visits that evaluate the usefulness of materials libraries for creative practitioners invested in novel materiality as well as visually documenting a selection of the visited libraries’ most intriguing material holdings. Utilising a scientific testing protocol, a practical body of work that centres on conducting extensive experiments with smart materials is developed, with a particular focus on testing the compatibility and colour outcomes of chromic pigments in silicone. The resulting chromic silicone samples are collated, together with sourced smart materials, in a customised materials library. Investigational prototypes and the Microjewels collection of digital jewellery and wearable futures that responds to external and bodily stimuli whilst engaging the wearer through playful interaction are presented as another outcome of this body of research.
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Sonnefeld, Bethanie Allyson. "The Uncanny Mind: Perpetrator Trauma in Poe’s “The Black Cat”." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2019. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/8803.
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Among the psychological interpretations of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat,” trauma theory has yet to make an appearance. However, the confessional nature of the story shifts—via a trauma reading—from an attempt by the narrator to ease his guilt to his attempt to understand what happened to him. The narrator’s murder of his wife traumatized him, causing erasures in the timeline and several forms of dissociation. These erasures and dissociations cause an uncanny effect within the story, which occurs as the past, present, and future are conflated and as the narrator’s mind is both known and hidden. The narrator’s tale is an attempt at working through his trauma to come to an understanding and acceptance of the events. However, the unclear timeline—both how much time has passed since his wife’s death and the passage of time in the story—suggests that the narrator does not have enough critical distance from the events, so telling his tale becomes a form of reliving that does not relieve the confusion he experiences. Ultimately, the narrator’s confession does not provide the understanding he hopes for, which places the burden of creating an understanding of the story on the individual reader.
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Roussel, Noëllie. "Mike Kelley, stéréotypes et "the uncanny" : vers une anti-esthétique." Paris 1, 2003. http://www.theses.fr/2003PA010670.
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Ce travail présente le rôle et l'influence de l'artiste américain Mike Kelley sur la scène internationale de l'art depuis la fin des années 70 jusqu'au début du XXIe siècle. Il présente un panorama de l'atmosphère artistique à Los Angeles, ville où est basé l'artiste, ainsi que des différentes tendances de la critique et de l'art contemporain américain au cours de la même période. Cette thèse présente diverses stratégies utilisées par l'artiste comme l'emploi et le détournement de stéréotypes, ainsi que l'utilisation du concept flou de " l'inquiétante étrangeté " théorisée par Freud pour interroger les débats critiques contemporains tournés vers l'abject art et l'informe. De même, l'artiste critique les tendances identitaires et autobiographiques à l'oeuvre dans l'art d'aujourd'hui et redéfinit la pratique de l'art comme une anti-esthétique, en utilisant la provocation, l'ironie et la distanciation afin de mettre en évidence la notion de l'art comme espace symbolique de réflexion.
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Jespersdotter, Högman Julia. "Repeating Despite Repulsion: The Freudian Uncanny in Psychological Horror Games." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Malmö högskola, Institutionen för konst, kultur och kommunikation (K3), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-42829.
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This thesis explores the diverse and intricate ways the psychological horror game genre can characterise a narrative by blurring the boundaries of reality and imagination in favour of storytelling. By utilising the Freudian uncanny, four video game fictions are dissected and analysed to perceive whether horror needs a narrative to be engaging and pleasurable. A discussion will also be made if video game fictions should be considered in the literary field or its own, and how it compares to written fiction in terms of interactivity, engagement, and immersion.
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Sloss, Eric J. "Homeless Abjection and the Uncanny “Place” of the National Imagination." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2014. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc500028/.
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This project examines the effects of the homeless body and the threat of homelessness on constructing a national imaginary that relies on the trope of locatability for recognition as a citizen-subject. The thesis argues that homelessness, the oft-figured specter of public space, functions as bodies that are “pushed out” as citizen-subjects due to their inability maintain both discursive and material location. I argue that figures of “home” rely on the ever-present threat of dislocation to maintain a privileged position as the location of the consuming citizen-subject. That is, the presence of the dislocated homeless body haunts the discursive and material construction of home and its inhabitants. Homeless then becomes the uncanny inverse of home, functioning as an abjection that reifies home “place” as an arbiter of recognition in a neoliberal national imaginary. The chapters proceed to examine what some consider homeless “homes,” focusing on the reduction of the homeless condition to a place of inhabitance, or the lack thereof. This attempt to locate the homeless body becomes a symptom of the desire for recognition as a placed body. The thesis ends on a note of political possibility, figuring the uncanny as a rupture that evacuates language of signification and opens up space for a form of recognition without an over-determined identity.
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Holmes, Amanda. "The urban uncanny : literary responses to Vienna and Buenos Aires /." view abstract or download file of text, 2001. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p3024515.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2001.Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 227-239). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.
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Adelman, Lizzie. "Strange at home, stranger abroad women, borderlands and the uncanny /." Connect to this thesis, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10066/619.
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McDonald, Kevin Patrick. "At home in estranged dreams: contemporary Hollywood and the uncanny." Diss., University of Iowa, 2011. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1022.
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This study examines contemporary Hollywood by focusing on films made between 1990 and 2010. With chapters on the double, war trauma, the undead, and automata, I delineate evidence of the uncanny within individual films along with the underlying contradictions that symptomatically respond to the larger economic conditions and industrial practices that shape the contemporary period. Each of the four chapters also serve as an occasion to analyze theoretical and thematic concerns drawn from Sigmund Freud's 1919 essay on the uncanny. Throughout the project there is a strong effort to link Freud's initial account to subsequent theoretical developments with a particular emphasis on introducing the work of Jacques Derrida. The cumulative aim of these efforts is provide a critical foundation for analyzing the latent disorientation within the practices of contemporary Hollywood and capitalist society more generally.
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Hysolakoj, Valerjana <1985>. "The Halls of Eblis The uncanny in William Beckford's 'Vathek'." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/8383.
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This thesis will argue about the idea of the Uncanny in William Beckford’s Vathek paying specific attention to the descending of the Caliph Vathek (main character) in the nether regions, called in this novel The Halls of Eblis. William Beckford is one of the most controversial characters of the eighteenth century. His literary activity has not been very wide. Yet, Vathek is one of the most interesting novels of the eighteenth century, both for its contribution to the Gothic group of novels, and for linking two extremely important eras of English literature: the eighteenth century oriental tale and the romantic novel of the nineteenth century. It is considered as the last book that closed the circle of the gothic novels. Beckford’s representation of Hell and damnation and the perception of terror are the most important elements in this book, but also of what Freud called Das Unheimlich. For Freud the uncanny is something unusual and disturbing that comes to the surface right from the depths of the unconscious colliding with the ego and bringing to light moments lived in the past, forgotten and removed. Furthermore, we feel lost in a world, which we do not know any longer, which is not familiar to us anymore. Accordingly, Beckford’s Halls of Eblis is constructed as a dream; by getting lost in those halls, wandering where they will lead, the confusion, the uncertainty, are those kind of feelings that we have already experienced in our dream-activity yet still disturbing for us. The anxiety accompanies us from the beginning of the descending of Vathek to the underworld, when the doors of Eblis open, until the end of the novel where everyone gets his/her own punishment.
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Macken, Josephine. "An Aesthetics of Interference in my Composition Practice." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2021. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/25085.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines the ongoing role of interference aesthetics in my music, centring the concept as both a compositional tool and a framework for narrating the development of my creative practice. Pieces composed during my participation in the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Composing Women Program are discussed through a taxonomy of interference paradigms which articulate distinctions between various aspects of processual disturbances, drawing on translations made across sounds, text, notation, concepts and identities in my work. Analysis of my musical output in these investigations highlights compositional developments across iterations of several projects involving flautist Claire Chase, The Sydney Symphony Orchestra and SSO Fellows, The ELISION Ensemble and Sydney Chamber Opera. This undertaking is demonstrated to have enriched the scope of my creative practice, which originated in technical preoccupations with disturbance patterns and evolved through the pursuit of broader inquiries in fields of multispecies attentiveness, concepts of the uncanny, processual materialities, and speculative figurings of more-than-human phenomenologies. The manner of my engagement with interference paradigms mirrors this shift, as the emergence of contingent threads and taxonomical slippages confound distinctions between categories in compositionally fruitful ways. Threads are drawn between aspects of my musical thinking and the work of composers Chaya Czernowin, Evan Johnson, Bryn Harrison and Salvatore Sciarrino. Discussions of further relations to contemporary art practitioners highlight the vibrancy of interference aesthetics across different mediums and through modes of material and conceptual translation.
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Tayler, Denise May. "The haunting of consciousness, Freud, Lockean identity, and the uncanny self." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp04/mq22880.pdf.
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Grimes, Hilary. "Late Victorian Gothic : mental science, the uncanny and scenes of writing." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2006. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5343/.
Full textAbstract:
Writers, mental scientists and spiritualists at the fin-de-siècle were haunted by their impossible desire to contain the inchoate elements of the supernatural within the fixity of print. By examining technologies of writing such as the automatic writing of the spiritualist séances, discursive technologies like the telegraph and the photograph, different genres and late nineteenth-century technologies of mental science, this thesis will show that despite writers’ attempts to use technology as a way of translating the supernatural, these tools are incomplete and the supernatural remains only a partially legible script. In addition, the thesis examines how both new technology and explorations into the ghostly aspects of the mind problematised agency. Is the author dictating to the typewriting machine, or is the machine the secret dictator regulating the author’s stylistic choices? Is the spirit at the séance ghostwriting the text? Issues of uncanny authorship are explored in the first chapter, in particular through a close reading of Henry James’s ‘The Private Life’ (1891). The uncanny effects of new technology on the body are also explored in James’s ‘In the Cage’ (1898), and Kipling’s ‘Wireless’ (1901). Chapter Two takes the example of Doyle and how he used the photograph as a technology to attempt to capture the supernatural. Chapter Three looks at mesmerism as a technology of the mind. Chapter Four indicates that traditional notions of Victorian womanhood, as well as writings on mental science, implied that women themselves were ghostly. Chapter Five turns to Vernon Lee, for whom the ghost story blurs literary genres, making indistinct fiction and non-fiction, ghost story and critical essay. Chapter Six returns to a discussion of the ways in which paranormal perception inspires women writers. An examination of Sarah Grand’s The Beth Book (1897) and George Paston’s A Writer of Books (1898) implies that New Woman writers find the altered states they access in their writing both ecstatic and agonising. A re-examination of the uncanny effects of technology through a close reading of Grant Allen’s The Type-Writer Girl (1897) shows that in New Woman fiction, women have the freedom to engage with writing technologies like the typewriter either actively or passively.
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Kriel, Charles. "Noise, artefact and the uncanny in large scale digital photographic practice." Thesis, University of the Arts London, 2004. http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/2302/.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation explores the question: why, when encountering the products of many new technologies delivering information via a new media, do I often experience a feeling of disquiet or estrangement? I use the example of laser-photographic printing to explore the issue through a program of practice-based research. The outcome of this line of enquiry includes an original contribution via three series of large-format digital photographic works: Presenting "The Amazing Kriels", Home At Last, and Pure. In this thesis, which supports the main body of the research, that is, the practice-based research, I will briefly review the case for artefact as noise within photographic printing, articulate a significant difference between the artefact levels of traditional analogue and Lambda prints, present original dialogical evidence for estrangement in the latter, and identify it via readings of Sigmund Freud's "The Uncanny" and McLuhan's "The Gadget Lover", as a function of the uncanny. I will propose an original rewriting of McLuhan's ideas of "hot" and "cool" media, as well as the cycles of irritation/mediation repression within McLuhan's media theory as a direction for future research, and relate them to a shift from large-scale analogue photographic printing to Lambda printing.