The Uncanny Valley Initiative is a public art intervention by Honey McMoney, Terrance Graven and anyone with the Initiative.

Uncanny Valley is a roughly triangular neighborhood in the center of San Francisco from Octavia Blvd/Market Street to Market St/Van Ness Ave to Van Ness Ave/Duboce Ave and back along the line of the freeway overpass to Octavia/Market.

The term "uncanny valley" was coined by roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970 to describe the emotional response of humans to human-like entities (see graph). To me it defines a certain anti-charisma - the need to look, in spite of the urge to turn away, mixed with an undercurrent of threat; it describes the territory along the border of health and disease and the interactions between the living and the undead.

It is strange to see people in such a state that they can only be called possessed.

Consider this not a reaction, but a counter-action. We can not undo the spells of others, we can only create our own magic. The reaction to filth on the street is to clean it up. The counter-action is to decorate it, decorate around it, and to repurpose it. We are not martyrs, we are artists.

Art Is Happening Right Now!

The Uncanny Valley Initiative was begun by me and my friend artist Terrance Graven in mid2009. We were toying with notions about finding temporary spaces to do installation and performance work. We were already calling our “neighborhood” Uncanny Valley and we realized that if people can shit anywhere they so choose in this neighborhood then we certainly can make art anywhere and anyhow we so choose. Uncanny Valley was our space, our canvas. Our mode is not attack or control, but counteraction. Our goal is to have Uncanny Valley designated as a free public art space. What that is and could be is currently open to discussion.