photo credit Max Kiesler
Recently, I came across this amusing graph called The CGI Effect Uncanny Valley (via New Scientist). The term “uncanny valley” comes from robotics, and it refers to a theory that humans would react more positively to robots the more they looked like us. If they looked almost exactly like us, but not quite, however, we would feel revulsion (the uncanny valley). The tongue-in-cheek graph suggests we may be in the uncanny valley with respect to CGI effects in movies. We peaked with the amazing effects of The Matrix and LOTR, and we’ve been in pretty much free fall ever since. Spark listener, John, pointed out this uncanny video of new CGI!
With the Toronto International Film Festival going on, we thought the time was right to look at whether Computer Generated Imagery has actually gone too far. I called up Katherine Monk, movie writer for Canwest News Service, to have a chat about it. Here’s a full version of that conversation.
I’m curious to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment please!
A shorter version of the interview will air on the June 18 & 21 episode of Spark, but you can listen to the full interview below or download the mp3.
Play audio:
I first came across “Uncanny Valley” at the excellent (and very addictive) TV Tropes website:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage
@ Lee,
Ha! I always get a little nervous about websites that are described as ‘very addictive’! I’ll check it out.
Although the Uncanny Valley idea makes a lot of sense, there is as yet no actual scientific proof for it. You can’t say that it’s been proven scientifically. It is not a theory, it is a hypothesis.
Nice interview, though.