Filched from my Asian American Lit blog. Interesting how Uncanny Valley just keeps turning up. New Media Studies, the recent adaptation of Beowulf, Asian American Literature… perhaps this is an issue that will become increasingly relevant as our technology advances. Is it time to re-address the issue of replacement? Can people celebrate art while feeling threatened?
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I can’t believe that nobody has posted about this before now, but hey, more fun for me! Asian ball-jointed dolls are a fascinating phenomenon, and their popularity is now widespread in this country as well. Anime convention-goers, collectors, and young children alike have adopted this fad with astonishing enthusiasm and occasionally alarming obsession.
In case you don’t know what Asian ball-jointed dolls are, I’ll summarize. They are, in brief, dolls of varying sizes that are based more precisely on the human form than most western dolls. Usually made of vinyl or resin, these dolls often have lifelike facial structures and anatomy, complete with staring eyes and a realistic amount of poseability. (In fact, many artists now use these dolls in place of the traditional wooden mannequins as reference for accurate figure drawing.) These dolls are generally made in Korea, Japan, or China, and there are many different brands to choose from, each of which have unique styles and features. Wikipedia has a good–though basic–overview of ball-jointed dolls here.
The main brands are Volks/Dollfie (Japan), D.I.M (Korea), Elfdoll (Korea), Souldoll (Korea) and Obitsu (Japan). The dolls themselves are quite expensive (the average cost for a 60cm doll is around $600 dollars or more), but this doesn’t seem to deter most collectors. Such an addiction is understandable when you see just how beautiful some of these dolls can be:
I can’t believe that nobody has posted about this before now, but hey, more fun for me! Asian ball-jointed dolls are a fascinating phenomenon, and their popularity is now widespread in this country as well. Anime convention-goers, collectors, and young children alike have adopted this fad with astonishing enthusiasm and occasionally alarming obsession.
In case you don’t know what Asian ball-jointed dolls are, I’ll summarize. They are, in brief, dolls of varying sizes that are based more precisely on the human form than most western dolls. Usually made of vinyl or resin, these dolls often have lifelike facial structures and anatomy, complete with staring eyes and a realistic amount of poseability. (In fact, many artists now use these dolls in place of the traditional wooden mannequins as reference for accurate figure drawing.) These dolls are generally made in Korea, Japan, or China, and there are many different brands to choose from, each of which have unique styles and features. Wikipedia has a good–though basic–overview of ball-jointed dolls here.
The main brands are Volks/Dollfie (Japan), D.I.M (Korea), Elfdoll (Korea), Souldoll (Korea) and Obitsu (Japan). The dolls themselves are quite expensive (the average cost for a 60cm doll is around $600 dollars or more), but this doesn’t seem to deter most collectors. Such an addiction is understandable when you see just how beautiful some of these dolls can be:
DOLLFIE:
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D.I.M:
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ELFDOLL:
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SOULDOLL:
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Many reactions to these dolls, however, are negative. The most common observation is that these lifelike dolls are “creepy.” This ties right in with Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori’s uncanny valley theory, which posits that the more human-like an imitation becomes, the more it provokes a corresponding feeling of unease in us. Originally, it was used to explain the public’s negative reaction to human-like robots, but can definitely be extended to encompass other imitations, like these.
“Mori’s hypothesis states that as a robot is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong repulsion. However, as the appearance and motion continue to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once more and approaches human-to-human empathy levels.”
(This has become a significant issue, not only in robotics and doll construction, but also in the areas of video game design, film, and advertising. You can read more about it here and here.)
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Creating, buying, and collecting copies of ourselves is nothing new. It used to be paintings, then photography and film. The idea of robots replacing live humans in the workplace isn’t particularly novel either, and computer-generated imitations are already replacing us in films. And of course this makes me think of Benjamin and mechanical reproduction. Thanks, Gardner.
Has our purpose changed? How does the function of one of Mori’s robots differ from a 17th century portrait? Each could be argued both ways. They’re both art. They’re both a means to an end. The key to replacement is immortality. We don’t last forever, so we want to create something that will allow us to continue, if only in imitation.
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