A question I have been asking myself this weekend is where does my recent work sit with the idea of the uncanny? The uncanny came about in Freud’s essay, which stems from the word unheimlich, and he writes that it’s the antithesis of homely, or what’s familiar. It’s associated with surrealism because of the oddities of placing different ideas together, and placing familiar items in unfamiliar contexts.

Washing up liquid is a familiar item, but when it’s displaced from the bottle, the material resembles novelty slime that’s been out in the sun for too long. It’s placed in a context outside of the kitchen, and isn’t obvious that it’s washing up liquid apart from the smell.

I think The Uncanny essay is interesting when read closely with Poetics of Space, because of Bachelard’s idea of the cellar being mysterious space in a house, and having a significance with the unknown and the unconscious. It’s definitely an idea that would go into the models and methods of curatorial practice module, and potentially studio practice.

Further references about the uncanny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEikGKDVsCc