“Down in the Uncanny Valley” from this point forth will become purely a personal project.  It will be entirely separate from my academic studies.  Work will resume on it at the first available opportunity.  As this project is being dropped academically, so too is the academic research that was to accompany it.  My time will be better served in the creation of a strong final result if I focus all of my attention to the main projects.

For this part of my Msc, I am researching two areas:

1. The Uncanny in Narrative Arts
   1. Major Research Area
2. Forms of writing
   1. Personal Research for Skill Development

The Uncanny in Narrative Arts

I am researching the Freudian tropes of the Uncanny in Narrative (according to Eyre, S. and Page, R. (2008) (Cannibalism added by myself, as it is a common theme found throughout the works of Freud (see Freud (2003) for example), and also throughout the works of those discussing the Freudian Uncanny (see Royle (2003) as an excellent example))):

1. Inanimate objects mistaken as animate (dolls, waxworks, automata, severed limbs, etc.)
2. Animate objects behaving as if inanimate or mechanical (trances, epileptic fits, etc.)
3. Being blinded
4. The double (twins, doppelgangers, etc.)
5. Coincidences or repetitions
6. Being buried alive
7. Some all-controlling evil genius
8. Confusions between reality and imagination (waking dreams, etc.)
9. Cannibalism

In order to do this, I will be using the “Down in the Uncanny Valley” on-line story project in order to research through practice.  I will also be reviewing narratives (primarily films, as they deal with the Uncanny in a visual manner) in order to see how other practitioners in the field of the Uncanny Narrative operate and execute their ideas.  The bulk of my Uncanny Narrative research will be located here.

Forms of Writing

The Research section of this blog will deal primarily with the research into forms of writing I can use to tell Uncanny Narratives.  At present I am looking at Haiku poetry.  It is short, expressive, and to the point.  I am also looking at the likes of Dr Seuss, who’s flowery, happy poetry is highly subversive and usually masking a darker vision.  My Progress blog here will also reflect upon how I feel my project is coming, and reflect upon the success and failure I find with parts of the project.

References