I have chosen to analyse and explore The Uncanny Valley and 'Complex and Complicated'
Introduction (125 words)
- Brief explanation of article and topic
- Anselm Frankes article, A Critique of Animation is an academically written article about the influences of pioneer film makers on motion capture and the way we perceive the Uncanny Valley.
- The topic of this essay is Anslem Franke's perspective on the uncanny valley and 'the complex' and 'the complicated'
- Definition of key words and concepts
- Uncanny Valley-used in reference to the phenomenon whereby a computer-generated figure or humanoid robot bearing a near-identical resemblance to a human being arouses a sense of unease or revulsion in the person viewing it.
- Complicated- Anything whose operations can be computed.
- Complex- Ambiguous, has many layers of meaning.
- Uncanny Valley
- The Uncanny Valley was first theorized and discussed by Japanese robotics professor Masahiro Mori, who wrote an essay in a Japanese journal called Energy in 1970. In his essay he explored his hypothesis on humans perception and attitude towards things such as robots that look and acted almost human.
- The Uncanny Valley is the 'valley' between where something looks and cats almost human. It gives us the eerie feeling that something is off with whatever it is we are looking at
- Uncanny Valley with reference to the article
- Anslem Franke refers to the Uncanny Valley in the article with reference to the film Avatar which uses CGI characters next to real life actors. He discusses how
- Quote- "Reality is then no longer the measure of an always imperfect image"(Franke, 2014)
Paragraph 2 (200 words)
- Uncanny Valley in film/animation/gaming
- The Uncanny Valley has been used more recently in film/animation and gaming where newer technology allows us to have nearly photographic 3d models of the characters, or ways of designing an actors costume to make them appear more robotic and eerily human that what they are are.
- Uncanny Valley in Detroit:Become Human, Tin Toy-Pixar, iMom
- Examples of the Uncanny Valley in recent works are, the video game by Quantic Dream Detroit:Become Human. This video game (and company) has made fantastic use of the newer motion capture technology, a game focused on androids becoming more human really shows the full effects of the Uncanny Valley on humans. , Pixar's Tin Toy which is infamous for people having a bad reaction it it due to the Uncanny Valley effect is the main subject in most articles that explain this phenomenon and iMom a short film directed by Australian director, Ariel Martin, much like Detroit:Become Human shows the uncanny resemblance that an android has to a human through their action and appearances..
- Motion Capture VS Uncanny Valley with reference to Avatar and article
- Motion Capture has helped to bridge the gap of the Uncanny Valley, with actors making it easier to make a characters movements more realistic and more unlikely to fall into that Uncanny Valley. In Avatar the use of motion capture alongside real life actors was a bit of a feat in experimenting with Motion capture and how people would react to it. As Anslem Franke said "showing the actor in the lab and the resulting digital character next to each other, is an image of the production of images, and it represents the solution that was applied to the “problem” of the technological negation and subsequent reconstruction of life."(Franke 2014) Humans are making technological advancements to push machines across that uncanny valley.
- This is why the image of the motion-capture technique used in Avatar matters. This image, It is an image that is paradigmatic for our current moment: humans pushing machines across the uncanny valley, beyond the winter of artificial intelligence
- Quote-"Captial's solution to then crisis of the absolute negation of life, it turns out, was it's techno-social reconstruction. The paitent had to be reanimated, and in course of this reanimation (and thus de-alienation and de-objectification", the oppositional matrix of the disciplinary society had to be undone" )Franke, 2014)
Paragraph 3 (150 words)
- Complex and Complicated with reference to Schuttepelz
- "The difference between the complex and the complicated was and continues to be the foremost frontier of modernization" (Franke, 2014) We seek to turn complex things into something that is complicated, to make it easier to understand and compute over and over again. Anselm Franke uses war as the prime example an engine of the advance of this frontier.
- According to Schuttepelz 'compilcated' is anything that can be computed, whereas 'complex' has layers. For example, a timetable is complicated and can be computed, but a conversation is complex, as there are many layers to it.
- Quote-
- Erhard Schüttpelz has suggested a useful distinction between “the complicated” and “the complex,” which helps to understand what is at stake in such a scene. According to Schüttpelz, “complicated” is anything whose operations can be computed, like train timetables. A conversation at a bar, however, is “complex”: it is ambiguous, and its many layers of meaning (and of animation) involve more factors than a simulation can easily take into account. The difference between the complex and the complicated was and continues to be the foremost frontier of modernization. By means of standardization and computation , modernity seeks to turn complexity into something that is merely complicated. War has been the prime engine of advance on this frontier.
Paragraph 4 (50 words)
- Winter of artificial intelligence
- The winter of artificial intelligence was the period where AI and Robotics failed to fill the expectation set in reconstructing and automatizing life. This is an important period of time for those who push the boundaries of the uncanny valley and the 'complex' and the 'complicated'. This is because the technological advancements come from the failure of this time, in order to not repeat it, people have pushed technology further across the uncanny valley. The winter of artificial intelligence was a problem, one that was determined to be solved.
- The winter of artificial intelligence: this refers to a period of several decades in which AI and robotics failed to fulfill the horizon of expectations in reconstructing and automatizing life. It describes the temporary inability of the machine to cross from the merely complicated into the realm of the dynamically complex. The winter of artificial intelligence: an allegory, also, for the reductionist, militaristic reality principle of an “administered life.” But above all, it was a “problem” at the junction between technology and imagery, one that demanded to be solved.
Conclusion (150 words)
- Restate main points and conclusions
- This essays main focus points from the article A Critique in Animation written by Anselm Franke, were on Frankes perspective on the uncanny valley, the complex and the complicated. It was found that Anselm's view is academic and ambiguous as he doesn't really show much in the way of his opinion on it. It seemed that Franke viewed the uncanny valley as a problem to be solved, often putting it into the complex category. This is because the Uncanny Valley has many layers of meanings and input from people that act as factors on it.
References & Sources of Information
Uncanny Valley
iMom-Youtube-Dust
Detroit:become Human-Quantic Dream-Video Game
Tin Toy-Pixar-Animation
Complex and Complicated
Franke, A. (2014, November). A Critique of Animation.
e-flux, Journal #59. Retrieved from
https://www.e-flux.com/journal/59/61098/a-critique-of-animation/
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