What If Reality Takes Place On The Inside?
– on how computer generated real affect our ability to spot fake
When talking about truth and that truth can come in nuances it becomes interesting to think about where truth takes place. Is it something that can be objectively observed or is it, at least to some extent something that occur in the bodies of individual humans? A vector for having the conversation is to turn to the increasingly asked question “what is real?”.
At Deep Cuts #1 digital character maker Beatrice Harty used her insights in the current state of computer-generated imagery to discuss how we cannot anymore distinguish “real” real from “fake” real. As we will see it’s not hard to think about dystopic use of fake-real, but in the context of experience making (and in Beatrices role as game developer Massive Entertainment), it’s very much the end goal to construct a world that is entirely fake, but feels alive and authentic.
“it has become really hard, if not impossible to spot the difference” — Beatrice Harty
The Uncanny Valley
For a long while, digital experiences that aspired towards reality were pretty clumsily rendered (think 90s computer games). As technology advanced, and as representations of “the real” got progressively more accurate, the digital experience industry had found itself in misfortunate technological state: as it turns out, depictions of near-reality give humans the creeps.
When humans feel discomfort in the presence of forms which appear “real” but are suspected not to be, this phenomenon is called the uncanny valley.
To illustrate the point we can look at the videos below. The first is a lipsync remix of two world leaders showing their love to each other. No creeps at all, as it is clear that what we’re seeing is not the men singing (it’s quite funny though).
But in the second video things start to generate unpleasant emotions. The video showcase real time lip sync research at The Visual Computing Lab (Technical University Munich).
Looking at the reenact result you get an eerie feel and if you look closely you can see that something is not right.
Beyond The Uncanny Valley
The fact that the videos above are made fifteen years apart and that the last is two years old gives a clue to where we are now. In her talk Beatrice mentions a video Buzzfeed did together with comedian Jordan Peele featuring improved technology and in the video essay below British artist Alan Warburton beautifully demonstrate how technology has now taken us beyond the uncanny valley.
From a technological perspective it’s obvious that fake will be real and that we’re able to have experiences in digtial worlds beyond the uncanny valley. But, how does that authenticity translate to all of life?
Living In An Uncanny Valley
Doesn’t the post-truth wild west reality we live in amount to a feeling of permanent residency in an uncanny valley? Surely nothing is more meta-spooky than watching news about fake news and hearing obvious post-truth arguments from heads of state. It’s one thing to claim that a cow is cheap, similar to claiming that it’s Bush and Blair singing in the video above, it’s a different ball game to fabricate fake material and say it’s true which is now technologically possible.
Just knowing that what looks real could be fake should be producing eerie feelings in humans.
When the human eye can’t discern real from fake in videos such as the examples above, and when falsehoods saturate our reality to the point that it becomes incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to identify them all: how then do we know what to trust?
“I think that reality is something subjective, what make something real to me might not be real to the person standing next to me” — Beatrice Harty
What if we have to learn to rely more on our experience and gut than a set of proofs? That our ability to think and evaluate emotionally is the key to the truth?
“when we put ourself into something and partake in an experience, we get a little bit more of an emotional value back, just as in the real world” — Beatrice Harty
It’s interesting to apply Beatrice’s observations regarding digitally-rendered environments to all areas of our lives. We might acknowledge that in our search and desire for truth, our perceptions are subjective, that we experience reality in accordance with our own lived experience, physiology, cultural background, etc etc.
That it is not to say that empirical truth can’t exist, but that (again) it might be helpful that we consider the “truth as a negotiation”.
“the only reality I can prove or disprove is my own” — Beatrice Harty
Again, Beatrice speaks about the world of games. But I think that her discoveries have use in all facets of our fake-news truth-bending lives. However provocative it might feel, we must allow ourselves to think about what the truth is and where the real occurs — internally or externally.
Further reading and watching
BELLINI, JASON
Deepfake Videos Are Getting Real and That’s a Problem (2018, video + article)
BUTLER, OOBAH
What Is Real (2018, lecture)
ROYLE, NICHOLAS
The Uncanny (2013, book)
WARBURTON, ALAN
Goodbye Uncanny Valley (2017, video essay)
Deep Cuts is a series of talks on questions carried in the heads of contemporary humans. Sign up for newsletter to know about coming installments and follow on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for continuous flow of recommended reads etc.
