Unheimlich And Uncanny

The principal idea in Sigmund Freud’s interpretation of The Uncanny theory centres around the Heimlich, translating to ‘homely’ and thus, what is familiar, and the Unheimlich, which is often translated to what is ‘Uncanny’ defined as ‘what is […] frightening precisely because it is not known and familiar’ (Freud, 1919) or later described as something that is ‘secretly familiar which has undergone repression’. He extends the theory further by placing the uncanny in to two classes, those are, thoughts that have been ‘surmounted’, for example, superstitious beliefs that have been discarded but re-emerge when an event occurs that could potentially confirm these beliefs. The second class being that of the ‘repressed complexes’ such as recalling repressed trauma, most specifically from childhood, fear, and unconscious desires.

He successfully merged modern sculptural concerns with traditional forms through drawings and sculptures. The structural skill of these works is incredible, even breathtaking at times; Neri spent his lifetime exploring the possibilities of combining posture, movement and material to make many great peices. Through years of sketches, drawings and paintings, he’s found the balance of how shapes and hues fit together. Through texture and paint, he’s able to simulate the effect of actual flesh while bringing out the inner emotion of the figures. Neri’s bronzes, marbles and plasters immortalize the amazing adventure of being alive and being free. The three dimensional pieces do not actually move, however the blending of the textures make you visualize and anticipated next movement, Neri’s work has the power to fill the viewer with

With images, words, and sounds been almost endlessly reproduced and distributed, various critics of modern culture suggest that traditional ideas about art and authenticity are no longer applicable. The problem is said to have been noticed back in the 1930s in the popular essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction that was concerned about what would happen to the “aura” of unique works of art when photography and other techniques if anybody could make unlimited copies of images. With the rise of digital technology, copying ability became vast and complex and hence the idea of originality is thrown into

Equally, the works in My Sentiments Exactly explore the space between the algorithmic and the organic. A series of exacting oil paintings show a set of organically disrupted monochromatic patterns, reminiscent of the movement inducing Op art painting of Bridget Riley. These optically complex patterns suggest the horizontal scan lines of CRT televisions as well as the oily residue left by our fingertips on a touch screen device, offering a trace image of our interaction with the digital world.

The Classical period of Ancient Greece produced some of the most beautiful and intensely felt sculptures ever. The sculptures of this time period are characterized by a freedom of movement and a freedom of expression. Of the many notable works there is one that every college student should understand, the Discobolus by Myron, or the Discus Thrower. This sculpture celebrates the style of the time period like no other. “The best example showing freedom of movement is the Discobolos (The Discus Thrower) by Myron in the Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome.”

Throughout “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato significantly identifies the discrepancy between reality and illusion. This can be compared to the 21st Century’s issue of False Advertisement. More specifically, false advertisements involving Photoshop, image-editing software used by many American’s in our society today. Although Photoshop may be useful in enhancing digital photos and designs, the entirety of the program covers up all reality. This can relate back to Plato’s story describing prisoners in a cave. The inmates take in to consideration how detailed the objects appear on the wall in front of them, not knowing of the illusion happening right before their eyes. Photoshop is now traveling down the wrong path to an unreal perception of

Since the beginning of art, typical mediums have consisted of oil paints, marble, pastels, and charcoals. As time has progressed, and aesthetics have changed, so has the extensive list of mediums found in art. One medium in particular, known as the use of “found objects” has become increasingly more popular since the days of the Renaissance. Found object art can be as straightforward as Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain,” which is a urinal fountain that is simply orientated sideways and signed; this, bordering the line between art and an object from everyday life, brings forth many questions and lots of public controversy. Art has always caused this same controversy, but one main argument frequently surrounding found objects is the extent unto which the piece must be abstracted or reincorporated in order to be considered “art.”

Is what I am seeing real or is it a figment of my imagination? Many people have found themselves asking this question at some point in their life. This has been a subject that has been addressed by many philosophers. In this paper the approach to this topic is centered on Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave and Descartes’s Meditation I of The Things Which We May Doubt as compared to the movie The Matrix.

Freud was always fascinated by just about any phenomenon, espacially of "unsuitable affect," its expression,

Jan Van Huysum is renowned for his innate ability to capture and display realism utilizing unique methods that have long captivated art aficionados. One of his many famous paintings, Still Life of Flowers and Fruit, encompasses various examples of his unique ability and incorporates a dynamic array of live material into this beautiful still-life painting. Originally painted in early 17th century Europe, this masterpiece of oil on wood now survives in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. At 31 ¼ x 23 ¾ inches in size, this painting allows for viewers to closely examine the entirety of this life-size arrangement. Fruits erupting from the base of a terra cotta vase, and flowers wildly expanding towards the slightest glimpse of light generates a feeling of life within the work. Adding to this sense of life is various insects and distinctive postures within the flowers of the bouquet that, when illuminated with the magnificent choice of lighting, creates an energy so realistic that the human mind commands one’s eyes to confirm reality. This paper will deliver an in-depth visual analysis and deeply examine the high degree of realism and detail provided by Dutch artist, Jan Van Huysum.

Freud’s concept of the “uncanny” is a highly influential and valued in psychoanalysis and literature. As Freud explains, it reveals much about his understanding of human beings as being essentially determined by their fears and unconscious desires. His interpretation of uncanny can be analyzed in two ways: linguistic and actual. In the beginning, he starts with the term “uncanny”, which is taken from German word “unheimlich”, literally meaning “un-home-like” – something unfamiliar and unknown, never experienced before. The problem is that the definition of the word and the linguistic peculiarities take half of the whole reading, so we get to the point after the second half.

Pirici’s living sculpture, like Serra’s could be experienced three-dimensionally. “However, the use of the human body gives the sculpture performative quality which makes it far more flexible, modifiable, and negotiable than [the original which was solid, unfinished and demanding of the public audience]...” (Ess-spa.ch, 2014)

Freud’s essay The Uncanny expresses his concept where somethings that is considered familiar to us or other people can become foreign and terrifying. For example, Freud gets the idea of uncanny by discussing the German word “Unhemlich.” In the first half of his essay, Freud mentions how he would have similar aspects regarding Schelling’s definition of

Cathy Caruth’s “Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Trauma” claims that “to be traumatized is precisely to be possessed by an image or event” (Caruth 3). This idea of possession is seen in Edgar Allan Poe’s “Ulalume” through the narrator’s enigmatic journey toward his dead lover’s grave. Throughout the poem, the narrator unknowingly works to overcome the trauma that is associated with “surviving” the event of his lover dying. The narrator is seemingly able to understand the true cause of his trauma through the use of the paradoxical duality of attraction/repulsion and familiar/unfamiliar contained in the “Uncanny” as described by Sigmund Freud in “The Uncanny.” The narrator uses the information gained from his trance-like walk to realize his

The Human Condition, or La condition humaine was two paintings created by Rene Magritte, one in 1933 and the other in 1935. Both contain many formal similarities, yet the main point of the painting is that there is a painting of a landscape, yet that painting perfectly fits with, or completes, the landscape, as if it was perfectly drawn. In this analysis, I will be analyzing Magritte’s first painting, made in 1933. Magritte’s works often include objects hiding behind others, such as with Magritte’s The Son of Man, where a man in a bowler hat is hiding his face behind a floating apple. Magritte does this also in the Human Condition, yet to express a different meaning. Magritte is one of the major spearheads of the surrealist movement, a type of modernism, in which the fabric of realism and definitions are questions. One of Magritte’s more famous works, The Treachery of Images, Magritte shows a picture of what obviously is a pipe, yet, written in French beneath the image, states “This is not a pipe.” This was the dawn of a philosophy which would take the western art world by storm, called structuralism/post-structuralism. This is the philosophy where ideas/words and their meanings can be flexible depending on the viewer or the circumstance. This philosophy believes in the subconscious identification with images/colors that people have with art. In Magritte’s Treachery of the Images, his statement that “this is not a pipe” can be interpreted in different ways. One could say,