A few months ago, I came across the concept of the Uncanny Valley. Probably, it was this post on the New York Times of the blogosphere, Boing Boing. What's the Uncanny Valley? In 1970, roboticist Masahiro Mori discovered that people like robots who look human--up to a point. If the 'bot becomes too lifelike, people will respond with revulsion rather than empathy. This dip on the robot/human empathy chart is what became known as "The Uncanny Valley." The idea stuck in my head, probably because the post included a photo of a man in bed with a sex doll. Last week I read this post by COOP. Recently, he's been taking photographs of porn stars. He wrote about being on the set of a porn movie. He didn't shoot the sex: "I was more fascinated by what was happening when the camera was turned off. I found these casual unguarded moments far more intimate and interesting, and I did my best to capture it on film." He wasn't as interested in the porn as what happens in between. That, too, is the space in which I am interested. There's Porn Valley, a place on no map. There's porn, the elephant in America's bedroom. And then, there is something else. Perhaps, I thought, that is "The Unporny Valley." Porn's reality is...uncanny.
