Unit 3: Environment - The Uncanny - Personal Favourites

I. The Doppelganger

The use of mirrors & superstitions surrounding ones reflective self or double (the doppelganger).

While it is certain that each of us have it in ourselves to be good and bad at any given time the idea of an evil double that commits acts of wickedness provides an excuse, lending one to the realm of the misunderstood (Uncertainty – Un-homely – Uncanny).

The frightful image seen at the window, or staring back from the mirror, could be your own--a double, or doppelgänger (from the German for "double goer"), the sight of which could foretell your own imminent demise. Sometimes described as the soul embodied, sometimes an astral projection or aura, the double most often presented itself as a warning. (Lindemans: 2006)

From this one can consider two outcomes, either: The evil double is a physical automaton (a fake) with no identity commandeering the reputation of one to besmirch. Alternatively one can consider the mental automaton (a real) with the original identity of one that has been split via mental psychosis (schizophrenia) meaning one through no fault of their own are committing acts of evil.

"Doppelganger" is German for "double walker" - a shadow self that is thought to accompany every person. Traditionally, it is said that only the owner of the doppelganger can see this phantom self, and that it can be a harbinger of death. Occasionally, however, a doppelganger can be seen by a person's friends or family, resulting in quite a bit of confusion. (Wagner: Unknown)

The confusion is and always will be: What is the truth? The double themselves are Uncanny with the mental emerging casually with most unaware, the physical is also a casual occurrence when the original host is absent. The evidential differences between the original and (the alleged) evil double are only made clear when obscene acts are committed by the evil self (a killing, an attempted murder or evident contempt) mentally differentiating itself from the original.

“The evolution between the narcissistic claim of immortality and the acceptance of the genetic continuity of parents through their children, which is at the origin of totemism. "It is no longer the double itself (the shadow) that continues to live but the spirit of a dead elder who is reborn in the embryo". (Rank, 1914)

Considering the use of mirroring, the Uncanny’s original founding (Otto Rank) concluded the father being reborn in the form of his child as it is the child’s yearning to become and embody their domineering sibling to replace them. One could not help but relate this to Freud’s study on Oedipus.

“The term Oedipus derives from the Theban hero Oedipus of Greek legend, who unknowingly slew his father and married his mother.” (Freud: 1899)

Conclusion

The idea of a mirrored self creates a loosely evocative prescience in which one attributes numerous differences (unfamiliarity’s) between seemingly the same (familiar) person. It is through this that one could consider anything through a mirror as alternate as if an alternate dimension does indeed exist. If one believes in the idea of an opposite dimension then one would have to consider opposites of every person in existence, with every location being the same but on the opposite reflective sides of the spectrum - where good people are bad and bad people are good.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- II. Isolation

The effect of Isolation rendering a populace empty for reasons unknown (uncanny suspense).

The concept of Isolation is in itself jarring with the majority of the populace drawing together and converging especially in locales personified by the public domain (i.e. offices, train stations, cities, etc). It is therefore un-nerving for one to see that domain as anything but populated creating a sense of insecurity & uncertainty.

“...people are unfamiliar with being disconnected from the rest of the world. This feeling is frightening because people seem to forget how big the world really is and how small they are in it. Humans are naturally afraid of being isolated because they are so used to interacting with other humans and depend on such interactions in almost all aspects of their everyday lives.” (Unknown)

One cannot help but consider something has gone awry when nothing is in sight leaving the world a vast plane in which one can walk endlessly, with trinkets scattered from the absent population. One could argue that being isolated for prolonged periods can cause depression and insanity with freedom itself having limitations on the human psyche.

“...nevertheless, isolation that can seem to be necessary could turn into depression or madness. The Yellow WallPaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is such a fictive example of a woman who has to abandon her virtuous stimulating life to sit in a room with yellow wallpaper, resulting in her depression turning into madness.” (Mlicka: 2006)

The idea itself is a bigger threat then the image represented - a world or location in complete disarray incoherently telling the story of a lone soul. The location is therefore daunting, almost towering over the person(s) involved, for the world itself is great & to live it alone is uncanny. The fear is therefore the fear of isolation itself, with the populace making the empty locale homely.

“…the uncanny is that species of the frightening that goes back to what was once well known and… familiar.” (Freud, 1919: 124)

Conclusion

Isolation is only considered un-homely in public domains but that rule can also apply to prolonged isolation in non public domains, as it is only through living isolation that one can appreciate the domestic uncanny. One could argue that the uncanny is absent in domestic situations but as the psyche unravels settings of isolation can appear quite ghastly and take on lives of their own.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- List of Illustrations

Figure 1. Black Swan, Doppelganger. (com) [Online image]. At: http://svdpfrankenstein2011.wikispaces.com/file/view/Natalie-Portman-Black-Swan-mirror-image.jpg/222995180/Natalie-Portman-Black-Swan-mirror-image.jpg (Accessed on:01/12/11)

Figure 2. Maria, Machine Man. (com) [Online image]. At: http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/cI1hRiFcbDQ/0.jpg (Accessed on:01/12/11)

Figure 3. Fringe, Alternate Dimension. (com) [Online image]. At: http://tvmedia.ign.com/tv/image/article/108/1082361/fringe-20100407034155655-000.jpg (Accessed on:01/12/11)

Figure 4. 28 Days Later, Isolation. (com) [Online image]. At: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtL4W2zwIjpBrRKaA_3tfJgxmwqKvJfkbcebtu60vA4zaYntAh7bSVb8NxDCdlgek2ujXC204zlUg4aQQhyJr8DuT3J0hdukXx3oQlluEpRoL8D2jUii5De9p6prLmnR-y_EeaHH9y8aU/s1600/28-days-later.jpg (Accessed on:01/12/11)

Figure 5. Yellow Wallpaper, Isolation/Insanity. (com) [Online image]. At: http://www.scaryforkids.com/pics/yellow-wallpaper.jpg (Accessed on:01/12/11)

Figure 6. Haunted House, Domestic Isolation. (com) [Online image]. At: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZGgUXxWQCCghlXlJeJeN48EoVcxOojRBcU8pni0SiTJ7OD53PE2y0fkAS6j9mqHMGVkndsG5AfDLR7CQRpgo6fxYGDM5ii-UxQWGhD9zskJYuAAbrbrOh01JtRtTuV-CipjDLOt73Cb-z/s1600/walking+dead+atlanta+jackson+street+bridge.png (Accessed on:01/12/11)

---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography

Lindemans, Micha. (2006) Doppelganger Mythica Encyclopedia At: http://www.pantheon.org/articles/d/doppelganger.html
(Accessed on: 01/12/11)

Wagner, Stephen. (Unknown) Doppelganger True Stories At: http://paranormal.about.com/od/Doppelgangers/a/doppelgangers.htm
(Accessed on: 01/12/11)

Rank, Otto. (1914) Essay on The Double, 3rd Edition
(Accessed on: 01/12/11)

Sigmund, Freud. (1899) Essay on The Interpretation of dreams, 1st Edition
(Accessed on: 01/12/11)

Unknown. (Unknown) 28 Days Later - Isolation At: http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~rmock3/isolation.html
(Accessed on: 01/12/11)

Mlicka, Agnieszka. (2006) The Psychology
Of The Interior At: http://www.agnieszkamlicka.com/texts/The%20Psychology%20of%20the%20Interior.pdf
(Accessed on: 01/12/11)

Sigmund, Freud. (1919) Essay on The Uncanny, Penguin Classics, 3rd Edition
(Accessed on: 01/12/11)

Unit 3: Environment - The Uncanny - Sigmund Freud

The Uncanny (the eerie, the un-homely) is present when a state of familiarity invokes a repressed fear (usually from childhood) in which objects, settings & even people appear to be more or less then what they are required to be by the rules of the physical world.

“…the uncanny is that species of the frightening that goes back to what was once well known and… familiar.” (Freud, 1919: 124)

For example:

• A machine, doll or inanimate object suddenly appearing out of place or looking uncharacteristically like a real person creating certain insecurities, this is linked to something known as the uncanny valley where our distinction of the real affects the artificial sense of the real.

“...One of the surest devices for producing slightly uncanny effects through story-telling, writes Jentsch, is to leave the reader wondering whether a particular figure is a real person or an automaton...” (Freud, 1919: 135)

• A number, location and or/term repeated multiple times throughout a day or period, this is attributed somewhat to Déjà-vu (i.e. the feeling that we have been somewhere before but for one or more reasons have repressed the information with only key attributes arising - hinting).

“...There is certainly nothing remarkable, for instance, about depositing a garment in a cloakroom and being given a ticket with a certain number on it – say 62 – or about finding that the cabin one has been allocated bears this number. But the impression changes if these two events, of no consequence in themselves, come close together, so that one encounters the number 62 several times in one day...” (Freud, 1919: 144)

• Ghosts & Spirits that are demonic - rising from our repressed fears of the afterlife, this is in many cases attributed to the points above (i.e. a doll/person being possessed or a location of evil intent constantly haunting &/or controlling its host(s)).

“Two factors account for this lack of movement: the strength of our original emotional reactions and the uncertainty of our scientific knowledge. Biology has so far been unable to decide whether death is the necessary fate of every living creature or simply a regular, but perhaps avoidable contingency within life itself.” (Freud, 1919: 148)

• The Mirror, the emergence of the doppelganger – a second version of its viewer, similar in every which way visually, it is believed that internally the doppelganger is the opposite of a person so if one is good then no doubt the opposing version of one is bad.

“Its uncanny quality can surely derive only from the fact that the double is a creation that belongs to a primitive phase in our mental development, a phase that we have surmounted, in which it admittedly had a more benign significance. The double has become an object of terror, just as gods become demons after the collapse of their cult.” (Freud, 1919: 143)

Isolation is also a significant factor of the Uncanny when instances of which are familiarly populated (i.e. a train station, a house or a city) that are suddenly isolated with no apparent reason building a climax of uncanny suspense. This illusion of suspense or disarray is somewhat partially broken when a cause is confirmed (a logical or illogical reason).

“One would suppose, then, that the uncanny would always be an area in which a person was unsure of his way around: the better oriented he was in the world around him, the less likely he would be to find the objects and occurrences in it uncanny.” (Freud, 1919: 125)

Images utilizing the Uncanny feel incomplete with a larger tale to tell, this is based in no small degree to the feeling of an un-complete thought, the loss, or jarring of a familiar situation begging a constant question with no tangible answer.

It is only when a definable illustrator is assigned that a genre or platonic situation can be designated to the image in question.

Consider this for example:

An image set in a deserted house; stuffed animals are everywhere looming in a haze. This could mean any number of things.

• Could the animals start moving?
• Is the owl looking at me?
• Are they actually dead?
• What is going on outside?
• Who owns this house?

The situation is un-nerving because no questions can be answered and no practical understanding can be considered – it is a room full of animals, which could mean any number of things. But, the second you glance at the blood on the floor you are left to consider the most obvious automatically assigning a genre – Horror giving one some degree of understanding – which is close but certainly not uncanny.

Conclusion

The Uncanny is the familiar but unfamiliar, the confirmed and the unconfirmed, the connecting edges that blur the real with the surreal. The Uncanny is where anything can be considered possible in a realistic setting or situation. A perfect term one could attribute to the uncanny is “Uncertainty” where one cannot depict the truth, forcing one to draw from their own repressed feelings of the un-homely to ultimately draw their own conclusion.

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List of Illustrations

Figure 1. Sigmund Freud. (com) [Online image]. At: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lkrq7igYSi1qieaneo1_500.jpg (Accessed on:01/12/11)

Figure 2. Heavy Rain. (com) [Online image]. At: http://gamingbolt.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/heavyrain1.jpg (Accessed on:01/12/11)

Figure 3. Lost, Recurring Numbers. (com) [Online image]. At: http://images.wikia.com/lostpedia/images/1/15/Hatchnumbers.jpg (Accessed on:01/12/11)

Figure 4. The Walking Dead, Zombie. (com) [Online image]. At: http://thewalkingdeadpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/hr_The_Walking_Dead.jpg (Accessed on:01/12/11)

Figure 5. Black Swan, Doppelganger. (com) [Online image]. At: http://svdpfrankenstein2011.wikispaces.com/file/view/Natalie-Portman-Black-Swan-mirror-image.jpg/222995180/Natalie-Portman-Black-Swan-mirror-image.jpg (Accessed on:01/12/11)

Figure 6. 28 Days Later, Isolation. (com) [Online image]. At: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtL4W2zwIjpBrRKaA_3tfJgxmwqKvJfkbcebtu60vA4zaYntAh7bSVb8NxDCdlgek2ujXC204zlUg4aQQhyJr8DuT3J0hdukXx3oQlluEpRoL8D2jUii5De9p6prLmnR-y_EeaHH9y8aU/s1600/28-days-later.jpg (Accessed on:01/12/11)

Figure 7. Heavy Rain, Taxidermist Concept Art. (com) [Online image]. At: http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/heavy-rain-house-wallpaper-concept-art.jpg (Accessed on:01/12/11)

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Bibliography

Sigmund, Freud. (1919) Essay on The Uncanny, Penguin Classics, 1st Edition
(Accessed on: 01/12/11)