Not to be reproduced 1999

Abstract

When Sigmund Freud first attempted to define the 'uncanny', he admitted that it is a term which is very difficult to codify. In his 1919 essay entitled The Uncanny, he stated, "The subject of the 'uncanny'... is undoubtedly related to what is frightening - to what arouses dread and horror; equally certainly, too, the word is not always used in a clearly definable sense, so that it tends to coincide with what excites fear in general." Freud 1919 p 219 This paper defines and demonstrates the uncanny in works of art and architecture by two artists, Rene Magritte and John Hejduk. Through considering their work it is also made evident that the concept is not always related to the negative as Freud describes it. The uncanny, when used constructively, can have positive ramifications - it can serve as a device to provoke reflective thought in the viewer. This paper aims to present an example of how the concept of 'the uncanny' can inform and enrich our designs in architecture. The uncanny in art or architecture is different from when it occurs in real life because the artist or architect has to have the techniques for making it appear. Three different occurrences are described by Freud as having qualities able to induce uncanny effects on the human psyche. They consist of 'repetition', 'reflection' and 're-representation'. For purposes of this essay they have been translated into 'techniques' for which the artist engages with when creating the uncanny. Together, they are called 'the proposed ordering system' and one that is used to analyse the works of art and architecture. Hal Foster in his book Compulsive Beauty describes the uncanny as "a principle of order that clarifies the disorder of Surrealism." Foster 1993 p xviii of the introduction. And so surrealism stands as a beginning point towards deciphering a use of this concept. The Surrealist movement, which published its first manifesto in 1924, expressed its revolutionary new ideas through the media of painting, sculpture, collage and literature, but never did its expression really occupy architecture. This paper focuses on three paintings by significant surrealist painter Rene Magritte to establish the uncanny before further demonstrating it in John Hejduk's architecture. It could be contended that this research paper also investigates the potentialities of architecture as a vital yet unexplored vehicle for surrealist expression under the umbrella of the uncanny.