Farming the Uncanny Valley
Farming the Uncanny Valley
© Anne Freitag
© FUV
Farming the Uncanny Valley is a three-years interdisciplinary research project exploring new forms of communication and participation in the bioeconomy. Bioeconomy has the goal to establish a sustainable bio-based economy that contributes to solving our major global challenges such as food and energy safety. How can we imagine such a future bioeconomy? Which changes might we face and how could we help develop things for our benefit?
Within the research project Farming the Uncanny Valley, feelings of uneasiness towards emerging societal changes in the context of current biotechnological developments are investigated. This research is intended to function as a starting point for initiating an open discourse and exploring new ways of involving a broader public into a process of co-creation. Technological change is leading to shifts in our values and perceptions. Relevant topics and questions that are characteristic for this are identified in a close dialogue between designers and leading researchers in the field. Based on this, questions, design exhibits and interaction methods will be developed that address the psychological tilting moment and serve as a starting point for a public discourse and the development of tools that enable laypeople to articulate a desirable life with these technologies.
For Field Experiments, first prototypes of the developing exhibits are shown. The methods and tools will be developed further and tested in a series of workshops with selected target groups in the course of 2019, and then made accessible to a broad public after that in a final exhibition.
Farming the Uncanny Valley presents a series of prototypes and objects by Natsai Audrey Chieza (GB), Clemens Winkler (DE), Paul Ferragut (UK), Ann-Kristin Abel (DE), Łukasz Stopczynski (DE), Stefan Schwabe (DE) and Jannis Hülsen (DE).
© Anne Freitag
The project is initiated by the University of the Arts Berlin and is realized in cooperation with Fraunhofer UMSICHT, STATE, and YOU.SE. The project is funded by the Ministry of Education and Research.
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