Beyond Mimesis

Providing a solid media-philosophical groundwork, Beyond Mimesis contributes to the theory of mimesis and alterity in performance philosophy while serving to stimulate and inspire future inquiries where studies in media and art intersect with philosophy. It collects a wide range of philosophical and artistic thinkers' work to develop an exacting framework with clear movement beyond mimesis in aesthetic experiences in uncanny valleys. Together, the chapters ask if intersubjective acts of relating that are defined by alterity, responsivity or witness and trust can be transferred to artificial beings without remainder. The proposed framework uses a particularly fruitful theoretical model for this inquiry known as the uncanny valleya fictitious schema developed in 1970 by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori. According to Mori, artificial beings or animated dolls become more eerie to us the more humanlike they appear. The models utility requires distinguishing between visual media and real life, but in general, it suggests that there is a fundamental incommensurability between people and artificial beings that cannot be ignored. This necessitates that all-too realistic representations as well as fictional encounters with artificial beings do not transgress certain limits. According to Mori, it is an ethical imperative of their design that they evidence a certain degree of dissimilarity with people. This notion seems especially applicable to artistic projects in which animated dolls or robots make explicit their doll-ness or robot-ness and thus inscribe a moment of reflexivity into the relations they establish. List of contributors: Carolin Bebek, Nadja Ben Khelifa, Misha Choudry, Elena Dorfman, Nicole Kuuleinapuananiolikoawapuhimelemeleolani Furtado, Stephan Gnzel, Simon Makhali, Dieter Mersch, Grant Palmer, Jrg Sternagel, Anna Suchard, James Tobias, Allison de Fren.