A Dangerous Stepping Stone

To Darker Deeds

the Doll

Human beings have

a complicated rel
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the puppet, stemm ionship
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lik
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re.

The dolls psychological incriminations and the extent

or limitations of their power can be explored through
notions of the uncanny first identified by Ernst Jentsch
in 1906 and elaborated on in relation to dolls by
Sigmund Freud in his essay called The Uncanny
in 1919.

I believe that the doll, designed to

be manipulated, can seem to become an
independent source of life even when
the viewer is offered agency over her.
I will attempt to illustrate this
by creating dolls that function with
pull strings, thereby an extension of
the string-pullers power, yet have,
in the narrative, a life of their own.

I will be attempting to attribute agency to the dolls I am creating

by employing the idea of power and surveillance in the narrative.
I will show the dolls acting out in the narrative through
projected animations and book works. I will show the dolls
watching each other in the installation with surveillance cameras
to thereby illustrate their power over each other.

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core concepts

the uncanny and the gothic revival

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Unsettling themes of the uncanny and the gothic

interest me as groundwork for this project, as does
an investigation of Baudrillardian idea of
simulacrum and simulation.
I am researching gothic themes put forward by the
romantics of the modern period between the 18th and
early 19th c.in art, literature and film as they
turned away from the rational to the supernatural,

and proposing a postmodern investigation

into the ideas of simulacrum as they apply
to the doll and its image.

This project aims to explore the uncanny in its

non-specificity,express something uncanny in spatial
form and draw upon the theory of the uncanny formulated
by Sigmund Freud..


In his essay

on the uncanny Freud took as the starting

point the nature of the German word das Unheimliche,
meaning literally, unhomely.

For Freud , unhomeliness was not merely the simple

sense of not belonging. Unheimliche was the fundamental
propensity of the familiar to turn on its owners and
become defamiliarized, derealized, as if in a dream.

The uncanny experience unnerves us. We do not trust it because of its

hyper-familiarity or disturbing unfamiliarity; its twisted version
of reality.
Freud suggests that an uncanny effect is often and easily produced when
the distinction between imagination and reality is effaced...it is that
class of the frightening which leads back to what is known of old and long
familiar.

Installation builds on theories of the uncanny

and explores intellectual uncertainty about space.
Sculpture based on the human form references the
uncanny in particular when questioning whether
objects are inanimate or alive.

I will also be referring to 20th c. gothic revival short

story writers, such as Edgar Allan Poe and Patricia Highsmith,
illustrators, such as Charles Addams and Edward Gory, and
filmmakers, such as Tim Burton as inspiration for the
written and illustrated dolls character psychology,
haunted houses and scenarios for this work.
I am interested in investigating and capitalizing on the
impulse that fuels the contemporary obsession with the gothic
narrative as its shadow is cast over aspects of
popular culture.

This project is also informed by texts such as:

Contemporary Gothic by Catherine Spooner, 2006
The Uncanny by Nicholas Royle, 2003
The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely by Anthony Vidler, 1992
The Madness of Puppets by Kenneth Gross, 2009
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, 1883
Shock Headed Peter (Struwwelpeter)by Heinrich Hoffmann, 1845

I propose to create and examine examples of the uncanny as

spatialised and materialized by installation work involving
dolls and their haunted houses in digitally augmented spaces.

testing

the
theories

A 1:1 scale installation project to experiment with the theories

I will explore for my final thesis exhibition will take place at
the end of November in St. George the Martyr Anglican Church/,
The Music Gallery at 197 John St.It is called:

I Think She's Dead

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toying with the tactics of the panopticon. The Tower-Man is The All Seeing See Being. The
constituents of The City have Him in their constant view. They are never sure, it is unverifiable, that The Tower-Man is looking at them at any moment. But they are certain that he may
always be so. While they perform their tasks, he is the surveyor of symptoms and the mapper
of aptitudes. In hospital, school, factory, shopping mall and prison, life is reduced to its

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I Think Shes Dead (Little Criminals in the Theatre of Punishment) is an installation

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Project Description:

simplest expression in The City. The Tower-Man watches while they are working and according
to their crimes and character they are separated in their small world each, a frame, an open
house, a window. Who is the See Being, The Tower-Man with his strange transparent material
presence? Who indeed! Does it really matter, some say. Any one of them could operate the machine! It does not matter who he is or what motives animate him. The inhabitants of The City
ponder the perversity of those who take pleasure in their purposeful occupation of spying
and punishment. The Forest surrounds The City and The Winged Guardian of The Forest keeps
watch as The Lone One is hunted. She escaped last October.
The Inhabitants of The City reside in the Houses of Certainty. They are as follows:
The Praying Lady inhabits the High Hospital.
The Scholarly Brute inhabits the School of Sharper Focus.
The Faceless Workers inhabit the Factory of Much Mechanics.
The Acorn-Headed Fancy Dressed & Accessorized Lady with the hand-mirror inhabits the
Shopping Mall of Many Goods.
The Blackguard inhabits the Long Prison and so also does the Caged Boy, his deft prisoner.
The full description, notes and images are at
www.//kajustl.blogspot.com/

i think she's dead

dolls and sculptures

sketches and models

dolls and sculptures

in the installation

dolls and sculptures

in the installation

dolls and sculptures

in the installation

the tower-man will have a surveillance

camera, glass front and moving parts.

dolls and sculptures

in the installation

dolls and sculptures

in the installation

i thinklocation
she's dead

St. George the Martyr Anglican Church

&
The Music Gallery

District:
South (former City of Toronto and East York)
Architect and year:1844
Henry Bowyer Lane
Gothic Revival
197 John Street, Toronto, On
The remains of the original 1844 church
which burned in 1955 include:
the Bell Tower, the Rectory
and a quiet memorial garden.
The church facilities now include
a worship space and fellowship hall.

The Music Gallery

St. George
the
Martyr Church
sanctuary

The 1855 tower door geometry will be mapped onto the

Houses of Certainty. This bell tower is all that remains
of the original gothic architecture.

gothic window geometry for the dolls

Houses of Certainty

collections
of artificial
gothic fonts

i think she's dead

mapping the space
the surface

Movement and Lighting

to gauge
also gage
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form: gauged also gaged; gauging also gaging
1 a : to measure exactly b : to determine the capacity or contents of
2 a : to check for conformity to specifications or limits

Wind Velocity, human and inhuman

I Think Shes Dead relies on natural and artificial sources of wind to move
the voile/ cardboard tree cut-outs, hanging dolls and candle light. The
uncanny effect it strives for will be produced by animating the objects in
the space through subtle changes in wind velocity. I will be gauging the
velocity of the space through experiments with gauges of wire, thickness
of fabric and attached weights. I will be using fans to amplify or counter
the effects of natural air-flow through the sanctuary. I will map these
onto a graph to determine the best possible combination for the gothic and
uncanny effects I propose to conjure or imply in this installation.

Nature of Light and Artificial Light

11
am

I Think Shes Dead relies on light and the absence of light to reveal and

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obscure its visual sensibilities and concerns of content. The presence of

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light and the level of its intensity serve as visual guides in seeing what is

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Light from the

East Windows
measured with
light meter
for 400 speed film

in the installation as well as affecting the uncanny feeling that is to be

suggested.

Candlelight is positioned along the outside walls around the sanctuary and
alter. Shadows are prominent and cast out from the sides of the objects,
emphasizing their shape, texture and volume. Back lighting comes toward the
viewer from behind the objects from two projectors and a super 8 projector.
Shadows are cast toward the viewer as they enter the space and are prominent,
the front of the sculptures in shadow. Back lighting will make the translu-

expected sunlight

cent tree cut-outs seem to glow as well as create a strong contrast between
light and dark areas of the room.

A concern for the project is the natural light that will come from the stained
glass windows during the day. I will be mapping their impact on the space
with a light meter and photographic evidence.

i think she's dead

mapping the space
beyond the surface

Beyond The Surface

Clairvoyant Investigation, Paranormal Implications

and the Haunted House Effect
Clairvoyant
1. a person who claims to have a supernatural ability to perceive events
beyond normal sensory contact.
adj. having or exhibiting such an ability.
def. from 17th century French with clair meaning clear and voyance meaning
vision is used to refer to the alleged ability to gain information about an
object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known
human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception.
I am interested in capitalizing on the impulse that fuels the contemporary
obsession with the gothic narrative as its shadow is cast over aspects of popular
culture. Paranormal investigation and metaphysical research play an intrinsic
part of the contemporary quest for the uncanny and gothic revival. I Think Shes
Dead relies upon storytelling and thwarted viewer expectation to conjure up an
uncanny feeling. I will be engaging in a series of stories about the raw materials and the research of my project in order to provoke uncanniness in the viewer.
The wooden lath I will be using to construct the sculptures called the Houses of
Certainty has been rescued from the interior walls of a haunted house. The sanctuary of the church I will exhibit his project in will be examined by a clairvoyant, who will host a seance in it, and its inherent power areas will be provoked.
I will be conducting EVP research and digitally examine the space for spiritual orbs.

Orb Theory is based on the findings of paranormal field

investigations and research. The onset of affordable
home digital photography in the mid-1990s has overwhelmed the field of paranormal inquiry with a flood
of orb and orb-like phenomena appearing in hundreds of
photographs submitted as proof of the existence of
ghosts and the supernatural.
Electronic voice phenomena (EVP) are electronically
captured sounds that resemble speech, but are not the
result of intentional voice recordings. EVP is the alleged communication of spirits through audio tape recorders and other electronic devices. The human range
for speech and hearing can be found in the 20 to 20,000
Hz range, however EVPs are recorded above or below these
frequencies.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

 How can I naturally and s

upernaturally engage the
installation space
to evoke a feeling of
the uncanny?

How do the psychological

concepts of the double and
the mirror
work within a digita
lly engaged environment?

What is particular to the

concept of the gothic in
relation to the doll?

How can I use the doll to explore

or elicit a feeling of the
uncanny in the viewer?

What fuels the revival and

contemporary obsession wi
th
the Gothic narrative?

How can I best employ my research into facial

expression and body language to reveal or conceal
psychology and character traits in dolls with
accentuated or obscured features?

How does the doll as still

vs. animated object
challenge or engage the in
stallation space?
How do objects have affect
, how can they possibly ha
ve
agency?
Does employing the survei
llance camera, as a narrat
ive
device, add to the uncanni
ness of the dolls, to thei
r
agency as autonomous bein
gs?

A character operates as a stand in for real human relations that are alive
and seemingly autonomous.
By implying a narrative onto the doll, will I then imply life force to the
doll?

A Dangerous Stepping Stone

To Darker Deeds