Uncanny Indexes: Rotoshopped Interviews as Documentary

Uncanny as Usability Obstacle

The eerie feeling attributed to photo-realistic human-like video game characters may serve as a usability obstacle leaving viewers dissatisfied with a particular character for a video game. This study investigates the relationships between user satisfaction and perceived strangeness and between user satisfaction and human-like appearance for virtual characters. 65 participants were asked to rat...

Videoblogs as " Collective Documentary "

Blogging has been a textual activity, but text is only one aspects of the diverse skills which are needed in order to understand and manage different aspects of modern communication. Broadband connections are likely to stimulate a rapid increase in audio-visual services on the web, presumably changing the future conditions for blogging. Videoblogs can facilitate practices which promote media li...

Uncanny affinities

Uncanny Speech

As technological advancements allow for the representation of high fidelity, realistic, human-like characters within computer games, aspects of a character’s appearance and behaviour are being associated with the Uncanny Valley phenomenon. (A definition of the Uncanny Valley is provided in the first section of this chapter.) It seems that one of the main factors contributing to a character bein...

Tracing Compositional Process: Software synthesis code as documentary evidence

Composers working with text-based software synthesis languages (such as the “Music N” languages) tend to produce rich documentation of their compositional process as a byproduct of their work. This evidence, in the form of custom programs and synthesis specifications, documents the technical means of a work’s realization; insights into the composer’s creative process may be extended if multiple...