Join us for the opening reception of Uncanny Valley, a group show curated by Wave Pool’s 2019 Curator-in-Residence, designer David Corns. Opening as part of the Second Saturday Art Walk, we will also have light refreshments, drinks, and a solo music performance by Ben Sloan.
“The sensation of uncanniness is, at its core, an anxiety about the stability of those persons, places, and things in which we have placed our deepest trust, and our own sense of identity and belonging.” - Marjorie Sandor
‘The Uncanny Valley’, a term coined by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970, is used to refer 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. In order to experience the uncanny--this anxiety driven by the ambiguity around identity--one must first have an understanding of the familiar.
This compilation of artists, fabricators, musicians, designers and architects provides examples of how the experience of the uncanny valley can be appropriated from AI and robotics into the language of the ordinary and everyday. This group of work, though highly visual, also addresses uncanniness by means of other senses and factors: audio, touch, assemblage of materials, and more.
Participating Artists include:
Ryan Back, Robert Corns, Could Be Architecture, Sophie Dannin & Matt Branham, DPMT7, Giant Claw, Tom Hoying, ITITITinc, Brent Lashley, Tyler Macko, Office Andorus, Lyndon Probst, Keith Rankin, Chris Reeves, Brooke Shanesy, Rowan Shaw-Jones, Substudio, and Jack Arthur Wood.
About Ben Sloan:
Ben Sloan is a Cincinnati-based percussionist, sound-maker, and teaching artist with the MYCincinnati Youth Orchestra Program. Ben creates a percussive collage of acoustic instruments, lo-fi field recordings, and hi-fi electronic sound using acoustic drums and electronics. To date, Ben has recorded and/or performed with a variety of artists including The National, WHY?, Mouse On Mars, Melissa Laveaux, Helga Davis, Nate Brenner of tUnE-yArDs, Madeline Kenney, Serengeti, Helado Negro, and Rozi Plain