Kurosh ValaNejad

Performance within the Uncanny Valley only seems believable on virtual characters with creepy body-language, like zombies in horror flicks.

But there is another set of mannerisms that may prove as successful on hyper-realistic models and that is the chaotic jerks associated with seizure disorders, like epilepsy, and tic disorders, like Tourrette syndrome.

The difference being that this class of expressions can generate sympathy in the audience, rather than revulsion which is typically associated with this phenomenon.

Judge for yourself by making the trek to the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach to see Call Me Ishmael by Daniel Joseph Martinez. This sculpture that looks just like its creator, uses hydraulics to mimic everything from small spasms to violent seizures, and includes an eye-roll that gave me a strong urge to hold him so he would stop hurting himself.

Why did Al Jazeera obscure the face of Baitullah Mehsud, Waziristan’s Taliban commander, with a white glow rather than the conventional pixilation or black box approach?

From FRONTLINE’s The War Briefing

Certainly they are aware that this veiling method is historically used in Persian miniatures to obscure the face of the Prophet Mohammad.

From, The Ascension of Muhammad, from Haft Awrang by Jami, 1556-65, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.. One of the many versions of the veiled Prophet’s mystical journey.