Ken Goldberg at Beyond the Uncanny Valley
Drawing from Sigmund Freud's influential essay, "The Uncanny," BCNM faculty member Ken Goldberg sought to deconstruct the concept of the uncanny by returning to its history and applying it to contemporary understanding. He applied the idea of the uncanny to humanity's simultaneous attraction and repulsion with various technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual phone assistants.
From the event page:
The essay and the concept of the Uncanny are familiar to literary theorists and art historians, who have charted its the literary and theatrical origins of the concept through works by ETA Hoffman, Mary Shelley, Karel Capek, and Isaac Asimov, its rich history in psychoanalysis, aesthetics, and philosophy, from Jensch to Freud to to Heidegger to Derrida to Cixous to what Martin Jay described as the “master trope” of the 1990’s. However, the Uncanny remains esoteric and unfamiliar to engineers and the public.