Uncanny Realm: The Extension of The Natural

One of the typical binaries existing in western society is the division
between natural and artificial. But similarly biological and technological
are often seen as oppositions. In today’s world, it is increasingly difficult
to tell the difference between natural-biological entities from artificially
constructed ones with human cognitive abilities. This is due to the
development of biotechnological methods to manipulate or construct
new kinds of living organisms that are purposely designed by humans.
Likewise, artificial intelligence-systems are being developed to become
more autonomous and life-like with their sensing and learning abilities.
These developments point out that our perceptions of the concepts of
natural and artificial are radically changing. Traditionally natural is
understood as something coming from nature and not made or caused
by humans; and artificial is understood as the opposite – not natural, but
produced, created or caused by humans.
Taking the uncanny valley concept by M. Mori (Mori 1970) as a starting
point, the paper will investigate how this concept fits into experiments
that are intertwining biological and technological matter. The uncanny
valley idea was developed by Mori in relation to robots and their
resemblance to humans. It is a concept that is strongly connected to
our perception of truth and to the moment when we are confronted with
a question to judge if something is ‘real’. In the paper the uncanny
valley concept is extended to experiments in the arts and the sciences
that address intertwining of biology, nature, technology, and which
disarrange our traditional understanding of natural, artificial and real.
The talk will additionally present examples of the recent and ongoing
research by the author that is interlinked between biology and
technology.