Presentations
January 18th 2025: Writing the Occult - Uncanny
A talk about the uncanny valley and its role in literature.
As part of the Writing the Occult series of workshops, I gave a talk called ‘Faces both Familiar and Strange’ all about the uncanny valley, how it's been used in literature and, of course, my research on why we find near-human faces creepy. This was my first talk to an audience of writers and readers, and it was an excellent experience.
If you’d like a copy of the prompts to use in your own creative work, please do get in touch.
October 31st 2018: FASS Chats - Halloween
A light-hearted look at the world with our academics. It's Halloween, and Prof Graham Harvey, Dr Stephanie Lay and Dr Alison Robertson chat about the past, present and future of the festival and of fear, from zombies to robots...
September 2015: Computers and Learning Research Group - Getting lost in the Uncanny Valley
Presented to the Computers and Learning Research Group at the Open University in September 2015.
November 27th 2007: SAND - The Uncanny Valley Effect
Presented to the Swansea Animation Days conference, November 2007