Lecture by Georgia Panteli and discussion with Monika Pessler and Markus Schinwald (in English)
Thursday, October 24, 19 h
Library of Psychoanalysis at the Sigmund Freud Museum
Registration required: To attend, please register below.
Puppets, Cyborgs and the Uncanny
On the occasion of the current special exhibition “THE UNCANNY”, we invite you to a multi-layered examination of the uncanny potential emanating from animated puppets. After her short lecture “Puppets, Cyborgs and the Uncanny”, Georgia Panteli will discuss with Markus Schinwald and Monika Pessler. Schinwald's work Misfits, child-sized puppets with grim facial features, is part of the exhibition curated by museum director Monika Pessler.
About the Lecture:
In the literary tradition of the animate/inanimate archetype what stands out is the desire of the sentient robot to become human. Often portrayed in film as a threat, the cyborg that dreams of becoming human functions as a mirror to how we perceive ourselves and humanity. From Ghost in the Shell to Blade Runner the question of what makes us human remains central. Yet as the cyborg’s mechanical body mirrors our own, the degree of its resemblance to a human body creates the phenomenon of the uncanny valley. How real is too real for our minds to process and how does this apply to the developing robotics industry?
Dr. Georgia Panteli teaches film and comparative literature at the University of Vienna and at University College London. Her monograph From Puppet to Cyborg: Pinocchio's Posthuman Journey was published in 2022. Her research interests include posthumanism, science fiction, myths, fairy tales and their retellings.
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