The Teller

I spent some time this week playing around with Midjourney, working on a specific challenge to come up with pieces that felt like they fell into the uncanny valley—that off-putting feeling one feels when experiencing something just on the edge of being human. It was a fun way to explore style and prompting in ways I’d never thought about, and I came up with quite a few weird—and a few wonderfully creepy—results.

This one was my favorite. I call it “The Teller”, and it was an attempt to recreate a memory of seeing a 1960’s era animatronic display. I don’t remember exactly where I saw it; there are several places—Disney, some World War 2 era military museums—but I remember the feeling of seeing the display and being creeped out by it. I think it was the first time I’d heard the term “uncanny valley” and it’s stuck with me, even if the specifics of time or place have not. Memory is a strange thing, and I don’t fully trust my own, especially for things from a long, long time ago.