Today we were treated to another lecture delivered by Alexadra Kokoli in which she discussed the historical relevance of 'the uncanny'. as part of our historical grounding Kokoli discussed at length the contextualization of the term by Sigmund Freud in the 1919 essay 'The Uncanny', where he made the first inroads into defining what was meant by the term. Realizing its potential significance, Freud took the risk of stepping out of his area of expertise in an attempt to show what it could offer to the world of psychology. In loose terms, the meaning of uncanny can be defined as an unsettling event or object which is at the same time familiar in some way, indeed it was well put by Kokoli that the meanings drawn from the origin of the term - the Germanic word 'unheimliche' - are so ambiguous, that its connotations are in fact comparable to its exact opposite and antithesis 'heimlich'. The phrase unheimliche in its literal translation means unhomely - which is to me a very astute term which itself creates a feeling of unease within oneself so in a sense the term is indicative of its meaning once you understand its origins. so where does this fit into art and/or design? with Art, you have people like mike kelly (who has devoted an entire exhibition to the uncanny) who have explored the term in our visual culture through the use of mixed media, employing metaphor and subtext to identify the uncanny in our daily lives, from this work - it would appear that the uncanny is a set of universal fears (which, according to Freud it certainly is). Although kelly's exhibition was exceedingly literal - to the point where it was almost moronic in its conceptualization - it did at least have that uncomfortable and unusual feel to it, as we stare at a figurative piece which has been formed from ground beef - like an elephant leg kebab seen in some less reputable establishments - we are filled with a realisation of what we are, that we are in some sense merely pieces of meat; a notion which many find particularly challenging because of their spiritual beliefs. Mladen Dolar - a Slovenian philosopher - once quipped that the uncanny is a "by-product of enlightenment" and that it was "haunted" By the specter of the supernatural - a lost idealism from a defunct era - but one which still endures today and contributes greatly to the nature of the uncanny.
further works of art of note are the sculptures of Hans Bellmer,specifically 'dolls' which have their own gravitas of anxiety brought about by their unequivocally female amorphous forms which are for the most part a reserve of fetishist ideals - the body being the absolute focus of his work. this work defies the common person's understanding of form and throws one's mind into dissonance - the forms are appealing, but for the life of you you cannot immediately determine why. This is mirrored by the work of Jake and Dinos Chapman who for their 'sex' exhibition created what most would call 'indecent' sculptures of children that share the un-natural aura of Bellmer's 'doll' sculptures but which achieve an entirely different sensation - one of overpowering disgust in my case when I saw it at the saatchi gallery in 2003, but at the same time i could not help but find myself enthralled by the seemingly tasteless pieces dotted around the gallery.
In the recent cinematic release of Shutter Island directed Martin Scorsese we are exposed to the unfolding of the uncanny before our very eyes, as a viewer you are thrust into a world of confused realities and confusion where you are never quite sure if what you are watching is the narrative from our point of view or from the main characters - portrayed by an excellent Leonardo diCaprio whose skittish demeanor constructs for us a sense of genuine unease. In a similar vein, the recent emergence of the 'torture porn genre' from cinema in the last decade can be said to be a microcosm in the universe of the uncanny - with sickeningly brutal and horrific scenes - these 'films' draw huge crowds of people who come to see mutilation, but mutilation that is afforded a sense of credibility by the way it is packaged and marketed - people take one look at the trailer for the film, or a poster on a bus stop and think "Well this has been approved by countless people who 'know' about films, so this must be ok right? This must be a healthy thing ? ... I can enjoy this cant I?" to these people for a start i would say that these people who vetted the film don't necessarily know about film but they definitely know about their target consumer.
the next week we were asked to deliver a short presentation based on the uncanny in our separate disciplines or work which we thought involved the uncanny. coming from a design background it was difficult to find examples of work which was as unsettling as what you may find in the fine arts pursuits of sculpture or painting, but that is not to say the uncanny never presents itself in design. for instance the role of critical design is to provoke thought and discourse, and this is often brought about by challenging our enshrined ideas of what an object should be from here, it is easy to see why a designed object may have an uncanny feel to it.
Furthermore i would say that whilst the uncanny does definitely exist within design, it is in an infinitely more subtle form. As design is always concerned with the user - the object produced will always have that grounding in practicality, it will always appear to have an application, often what causes such unease when observing a piece is that mockery of the proposed object's function.
With the recent success of cult design brand Droog and the rise of dutch avant-garde we have seen a large increase in the number of works being produced by the design community with an uncanny feel to them, i believe this success can largely be attributed to our societies current appetite for products which carry with them a narrative of some sort, indeed it seems that now a chair cannot simply be a chair - it must also sate a psychological need by offering us some kind of social or self affirmation. The Atelierdorp collective residing in Eindhoven have produced objects with an almost tangible uncanniness to them, the works 0f Nacho Carbonell in particular play on our conceptions of function.
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