OUGD501: COP: SB1: New Media Essay: Discuss, Identify and Present Evidence On How Typography Can Become Uncanny Within Graphic Design

OUGD501: COP: SB1: New Media Essay Further Research

Discussion Points

- How can type become uncanny or disturbing?

- How you can pick a certain typeface that, no matter where you place it, will always be eerie?

- Experiment/think about type being used in the wrong context ( and how it will then become creepy- look into tone of voice)

- To what extent can type choice influence meaning (look at ransom notes (as well as the typeface ransom))?

- Handwritten type and the way that it is repetitive and looks more robotic rather than provide a variation as human handwriting does (we make mistakes etc- computers don't)

- Glyphs from times (Egypt etc) how they are draw rather than written and provide an image to the words which is the word itself.

- How/what it is written in. EG, blood. How it is worse when handwritten in blood rather than typed using a 'blood effect' (digitised)

- Ransom notes- why so creepy- using different words and letter etc from different media's

- Illustration Typography (lettering using the human body: Roman Cieślewicz, alphabet for Guide de la France mystérieuse, 1964) http://designobserver.com/feature/a-dictionary-of-surrealism-and-the-graphic-image/37685/

- Surealism: Religion (-"Doubles are uncanny. Coincidence and repetition are uncanny. The “evil EYE” is uncanny. The doll, an inanimate object that nevertheless suggests the presence of life, is uncanny").

Key Words/Ideas

- Cognitive Dissonance: The mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.

- Leon Festinger's Theory: Focuses on how humans strive for internal consistency. When inconsistency (dissonance) is experienced, individuals tend to become psychologically uncomfortable and are motivated to attempt to reduce this dissonance, as well as actively avoiding situations and information which are likely to increase it.

Essay Points

Handwritten typefaces such as Comic Sans, are seen to be uncanny. It strives to appear human-like and hold emotion, when in actual fact the repeatition and generated perfection of each glyph emits a robotic and eerie persona. This is not dissimilar to the theory of 'The Uncanny Valley', the term was coined by Massahiro Mori, a robitic professor. In his theory, he states that as a robots appearence becomes more similar to a humans, the emotional response will be positive until a point is reached where this is replaced with strong revulsion. This area of response which is aroused by a robots appearence (and motion) between "Barely Human" and a "Fully Human Entity" is appropriately labelled The Uncanny Valley. Not only do you emotion towards the entity change, but the feelings within it alter too, although it now means less becuase it is not real.

 We can see this, within typography to an extent.

Something as emotional as a handwritten love letter looses it's authenticity when digitised using a computer generated script typeface. It imitates the emotion of a human but is very disconnected and therefore feels Uncanny. When the feeling and emotion this is removed, so is some of the personality and human sentiment.
(Link back to the Exhibition at the Tetley)

Tetley Exhibition

Project Ideas

- Identify type that is Uncanny (just my Type)

- How types have changed from their intentions- Comic sans- friendly and easy to read and turned out to be very wrong

- Book (childs book/toys) replaced with creepy type (kids work/birthday card 

- Book of notes that change context when the type is changed "Key under the mat, come in, I'm waiting for you upstairs (script/romantic- ransom/eerie)

- "Doubles are uncanny. Coincidence and repetition are uncanny. The “evil EYE” is uncanny. The doll, an inanimate object that nevertheless suggests the presence of life, is uncanny."

- Letters from randsom notes

Charles Darwin, in his book commonly known as Voyage of the Beagle, describes the uncanny quality of a snake and explains the hideousness in terms of snake's face's proportions being in relation to a human's face.

The expression of this [Trigonocephalus] snake’s face was hideous and fierce; the pupil consisted of a vertical slit in a mottled and coppery iris; the jaws were broad at the base, and the nose terminated in a triangular projection. I do not think I ever saw anything more ugly, excepting, perhaps, some of the vampire bats. I imagine this repulsive aspect originates from the features being placed in positions, with respect to each other, somewhat proportional to the human face; and thus we obtain a scale of hideousness.

—Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle[34]

Comic Sans, Brush Script and Chalkboard mimmick casual human handwriting. Because of the nature of rendering of the glyphs as single units, in long bodies of texts, the pattern is instantly noticable in repeating glyphs which defeats the whole purpose of mimmicking organic flow. Instead of looking organic, they now look as if they were robots, acting too hard to move like humans do.

http://servetulas.com/blog/2011/10/the-uncanny-valley-and-casual-script-typefaces/

Most graphic design conforms to an underlying grid, a sense of structure and professional good taste, which brings order but also imposes limits. The images and designs in Uncanny break free from these bureaucratic restrictions and follow the impulses of a wayward, subjective, dreamlike logic to arrive at their own kind of equilibrium and form. They show that graphic design, too, can sometimes be a place to encounter the strange, the fantastical and the uncanny, to rediscover our lost sense of mystery, and to experience the convulsive beauty and capacity for enchantment and wonder that the Surrealists called “the marvelous.”


Surrealism Imagery For Inspiration

Surrealism & The Graphic Image (Link)

Rudolf Nemec, Valerie and her Week of Wonders, LP, 1970
This is an obvious image of uncanny as we fear for the young child who appears to be afraid of the cloacked figure. We cannot see the figures full face and do not know who or what he is. This makes us feel uneasy, almost the 'fear of the unknown'.

Brian Schorn, poster for a reading, 1994 
This image combines a photgraph and dripping inks and vector lines. The orientation of the eye is not natural and feels unfirendly within this shape also. In addition to this, the typeface used features a combination of upper and lowercase (the letter A in the name Kathy is uppercase), we recognise this as being wrong gramatically and does not feel, again, natural. The flourishes of the 'y' and 'A' are tapered and sharpr towards the ends. This communicates danger and appears strange, as though the movement of the letters render it living.

Roman Cieślewicz, alphabet for Guide de la France mystérieuse, 1964
This is another more obvious example of the uncanny within type. Using body parts, animals and food in combination in this way provides a strange aesthetic and looks perverse and unusual.

Franciszek Starowieyski, theater poster, 1974
Death, shown within the imagery and the colour choices, black, represent the evil. This alone emits an uncanny feeling.

Uncanny, Surrealism and Graphic Design

Guest Curator: Rick Poynor
Moravian Gallery Curator: Marta Sylvestrová
Exhibition Design: Šárka Ziková
Exhibition Graphics: Adam Machácek and Sébastien Bohner

Moravian Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic
23 June to 24 October 2010

Kunsthal, Rotterdam, Netherlands

24 September to 4 December 2011
http://observatory.designobserver.com/rickpoynor/uncanny.html 

Theorists
(Chosen quotes for essay)
E.Jentsch: First identified ‘The Uncanny’ in his 1906 essay, 'On the Psychology of the Uncanny’. Within, he defines the Uncanny to be a product of ‘intellectual uncertainty’
Festinger: Says that humankind strive for ‘…internal consistency’ and that repetition should leave us feeling comfortable. Yet  “When inconsistency (dissonance) is experienced, individuals become psychologically uncomfortable”. He then sites that a “…situation involving conflicting attitudes…”, would create further cognitive dissonance.
Mori coined the theory of 'The Uncanny Valley' where he talks about robots and how they too can appear uncanny. He states that ‘as a robots appearance becomes more similar to that of a humans, the emotional  response will be positive, until a point is reached where this is replaced with strong revulsion’. This is an area of response that is aroused by the robots appearance (and motion) between "barely human" and a "fully human entity. Our “...emotion towards the entity changes...  the feelings within it alter too... it now means less because it is not real”.

Jim Wasco and had the opportunity to chat about his recent typeface Elegy, which is a calligraphic script typeface. He told me that in order to achieve something close to the natural flow of writing he had to design some of the glyphs with 5 to 15 additional versions and encode them as “contextual alternates” which would generate a less Frankenstein looking script typeface.

Graphology
Graphology Research Blog Post
It is more than appropriate to link Graphology to my essay, above is some research that would aid me to do this.

Using Graphology I have analysed Comic Sans and Arial, below, so that these can be compared and contrasted in my essay (as they are very different typefaces).

Arial

Arial is a neutral, contemporary, sans serif typeface. It was not designed to mimic human handwriting and holds “...many humanist characteristics and has a less mechanical appearance…”. This makes it a very neutral typeface which can be used without creating a tone or connotations when used.

The upright 'slant' indicates independence and motivation through factors rather than people (neither extrovert or introvert) as well as representing shows emotional consistency.

The short cross bar on the letter 't' represents someone approachable and friendly. Arial holds all of the traits that a heimlich typeface should. Arial is a neutral typeface that does not interfere with any of the connotations of the type throughout.

Comic Sans

Microsoft's 'help' tips which is required to appear friendly, which, when originally using Times New Roman, did not. Comic Sans was the solution to this, providing a warm, human, handwritten aesthetic. 

Graphology can be used to deconstruct Comic Sans as if it were actual human handwriting. The analysis results reveal that this ‘writer’ is an ‘Angle Writer’. This indicates someone who likes to think things through and use their imagination in a sensible way. This is noted through the formation of their reasonably proportioned upper zone loops. The straight strokes on the letters ‘y’ and ‘p’, in combination with the narrow word spacing and the angled middle zone (letter e) shows that the writer can be intrusive, impatient and also gives the impression of probing. Focusing on the letters ‘a’, ‘c’ and ‘e’ we can see that these ‘middle zones’ are humped and rounded. This is in the basic style of copy-book, though it is not taught in all schools. Writers who use this can be secretive, stubborn and  hypocritical when they choose.

 The most important characteristic is group solidarity against outsiders.

The long line on the ’t’ shows that they can be overly aggressive. The angle writer, is better employing talents at work and for business purposes, rather than nurturing, which is the strength of the garland writer. 

 This reveals that the Angle writer is pessimistic, controlling and possibly a dangerous character. These characteristics integrate to give an uneasy feeling towards this typeface/person.

OUGD501: COP: SB1: New Media Essay Research & Feedback

Uncanny & Surrealism

The uncanny In his essay “The Uncanny” (1919), Freud suggests that the feeling something is uncanny (in German, unheimlich — “unhomely”) arises when an emotional impulse we have repressed returns to consciousness, triggered by some inexplicable sight or experience, and frightens us. It makes no difference to the effect whether the original source of this emotion, which could be highly familiar, was intrinsically disturbing or not. In many Surrealist images, something ordinary and familiar, suddenly perceived as a symbol, becomes disruptive and strange. Doubles are uncanny. Coincidence and repetition are uncanny. The “evil EYE” is uncanny. The doll, an inanimate object that nevertheless suggests the presence of life, is uncanny.

Movie Animation

 

Movie animation falls within the valley of Uncanny. I have looked into the way that advanced technology used in movies in the 21st century, can provide a very real looking animation which can appear to be eerie and uncanny. Movies such as Beowolf and The Polar Express are two very recent examples within this category. This reaction from the audience was reflected in their reviews and box office takings. They where both succesful but people noted that they found that their animation graphics where eerie and bizare.

Tintin, another animated movie, seems to be uncanny at first glace yet is less so because of the exaggerated features (nose, hands etc) of the characters. This re-introduces the cartoon/caracature, fiction element back into their appearence.

Ratatouille uses a similar technique as Tintin. As not to create something uncanny when it comes to details such as hands and eyes, the animation makers exaggerated the size and shapes of these. This meant that they didn't spend precious time trying to get their features human looking, yet failing this, providing something which appears uncanny.

Skeumorphism

Skeuomorphism is when design is made to immitate another material. For example, above, Apple designed their digital calender with ring binders so that it looked to be like a real 3D flip calendar. You can see where the pages would have been previously yet where ripped off. Using the transition of the page 'flipping over' is another imitation. They have also used Skeuomorphism when designing their 'steel' buttons or 3D apps amongst other parts of their products.

Fashion Models

Looking at the way that fashion models are airbrushed to look 'doll-like' and the embodiment of perfection works to provide an uncanny feel to them. This is working in the opposite way to robots and the way that they are being developed to look more human yet still feels uncanny and eerie shown in the image above.

Charles Darwin on the Voyage of The Beagle

I thought that this seemed to be an interesting subject to look at within the Uncanny Valley. The snake in this book is described to be 'a snake with the face of a man'. This also then links to Anthropomorphism and the personification of the animal to man. The combination of animal and human gives an uncanny feel to the creature as we fear this unknown.

Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism, or personification, is attribution of human form or other characteristics to anything other than a human being. Examples include depicting deities with human form and ascribing human emotions or motives to forces of nature, such ashurricanes or earthquakes.

Anthropomorphism has ancient roots as a literary device in storytelling, and also in art. Most cultures have traditional fables with anthropomorphised animals, who can stand or talk as if human, as characters.

Surrealism

"Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings."

I wanted to look into surrealism as I feel that the images combine images, animals, products together that you never would see in real life. Some of the images are uncanny, as the ones below;