In this essay I discuss conscience as analyzed by Heidegger in his magnum opus Being and Time from 1927. In Heidegger´s phenomenological ontology conscience is an uncanny call that comes from ourselves and is directed to ourselves; an inner foreign voice that suddenly strikes us in our everydayness and summons us to face our own being, that is: our own uncanniness. According to Heidegger to face one´s being is to face the human existence itself as essentially free, finite and historical, which in its extension means to face oneself as the conscious being one is. My question focuses on the who: who is the one that calls inside of us – who is it that we listen to? Or, to put it differently: what in our existence makes it possible for us to simultaneously be the caller and the one that is being called on? Whereas Heidegger answers by referring to the distinction between Being and being(s), which is essential in his philosophy, I choose another and extended direction of interpretation, namely one that points precisely at the uncanny – demonic – character of existence. This interpretation is developed specifically in relation to some of Heidegger´s later writings, his readings of Sophocles´ Antigone as well as his Letter on Humanism. It is my intention to show that Heidegger through his analysis on the uncanny and historical human being implicitly makes room for a demonic understanding of conscience as an ethical phenomenon that relates it not only to being and death, but also to the dead.

[pt] Tomando por base as considerações de Martin Heidegger acerca da técnica, segundo as quais o domínio da técnica vigente em nossos dias manifesta-se como a aparência de ser a única possibilidade de compreensão da realidade, sendo este o grande perigo de nossa época, nossa questão norteadora aqui é sobre a estranheza existencial e de sua possibilidade em nossa época. O fenômeno da estranheza é tematizado por Heidegger de modo mais pormenorizado em Ser e tempo, sua obra seminal. Tendo em vista o caráter histórico-ontológico deste trabalho, nosso ponto de partida será demonstrar as determinações históricas que conduziram Heidegger para a questão diretriz de Ser e tempo, isto é, o questionamento pelo sentido de ser. Havendo estabelecido isso, reconstruiremos os passos essenciais da analítica existencial que convém ao fenômeno da estranheza, visando demonstrar sua relação essencial com temas como a cotidianidade, angústia, cuidado, morte e autenticidade. A estranheza mostrar-se-á como um fenômeno inseparável da disposição de ânimo fundamental, que, em Ser e tempo, é a angústia. A questão da técnica, por sua vez, surge no pensamento tardio de Heidegger, isto é, após a virada em seu pensamento. Visamos demonstrar que após a virada não houve um abandono das conquistas obtidas em Ser e tempo, muito pelo contrário: as considerações acerca da estranheza tal como apresentadas na analítica existencial parecem ser imprescindíveis para a nossa hodierna tarefa do pensamento, pois a lida apropriada com a tecnologia e seus aparelhos parece exigir um estranhamento essencial de seu domínio inconcusso e indisputado. / [en] Based on Martin Heidegger s considerations concerning technology, according to which the dominance of technology in force nowadays manifests itself as the appearance of being the only possibility of comprehension of reality, which is the great danger of our time, our guiding question here is about the existential uncanniness and its possibility in our time. The phenomenon of the uncanny is thematized by Heidegger in more detail in Being and time, his seminal work. Considering the historical-ontological character of this work, our starting point will be to demonstrate the historical determinations that led Heidegger to the guiding question of Being and time, that is, the questioning of the meaning of Being. Having established this, we will reconstruct the essential steps of the existential analytic that befits the phenomenon of uncanniness, aiming to demonstrate its essential relationship with themes such as the everydayness, anxiety, care, death and authenticity. Uncanniness will prove itself to be an inseparable phenomenon of the fundamental attunement, which, in Being and time, is the anxiety. The question concerning technology, on the other hand, appears in Heidegger s late thought, that is, after the turn in his thought. We aim to demonstrate, therefore, that after the turn there was no abandonment of the achievements obtained in Being and time, but quite the opposite: the considerations about the uncanny as presented in the existential analytic seem to be indispensable to our contemporary task of thinking, for the properly dealing with technology and its devices seems to require an essential uncanniness of its undisputed dominance.

This essay explores how the reader cognitively reacts to reading H. P. Lovecraft’s horror story “The Shadow Out of Time” (1936). I analyse the text to see how it invites readers to beaffected by it. I specifically look at invitations to envisionment, subjective experience andintersubjectivity. The literary horror terms uncertainty and uncanniness are used inconjunction with cognitive theory to explain how the readers may react to readingLovecraft’s stories. These are in turn reinforced by the reader's ongoing envisionment of thestory, and their sharing of the character’s experiences via subjective experience. For example,the separation between the mind and body of the protagonist creates an uncanny dissonanceto his own identity, which disrupts the reader’s understanding of the character. This maycause distress in the reader due to the subjective experience that connects the reader to thecharacter. Additionally, the disrupted sense of reality in the book affects the narrator'sperceptions of both his surroundings and his own mental faculties. Subsequently, the reader’sunderstanding of the text is also in a state of flux which affects their envisionment of thestory. This disrupts understanding and may enhance feelings of unease. My theory istherefore that unease is invited by certain horror techniques, such as uncertainty anduncanniness, which in turn influence the reader specifically through subjective experienceand envisionment.

[pt] A presente tese propõe uma reflexão acerca do habitar. Tal como Heidegger, também ousamos refletir sobre o modo como o homem contemporâneo habita e as consequências que a contemporaneidade gera ao pensar filosófico. Nesse sentido, a perspectiva heideggeriana e suas nuances fundamentam essa pesquisa, sem limitar a compreensão do habitar. As expressões artísticas com as quais Heidegger dialoga em sua obra ampliam e aprofundam a questão. Desde Ser e tempo a reflexão a respeito do habitar é permeada pelo familiar e pela estranheza. Surpreendentemente a estranheza parece tomar muitas formas na vasta obra do filósofo. A estranheza por vezes surge no sentido grego de espanto, também de mistério e de sagrado. Aparece, em outros momentos, como o estrangeiro ou na sensação de exilio. Nem sempre surge como uma oposição ao familiar, mas também há uma possibilidade de confrontação originária com o familiar. Mesmo com a rapidez, o imediatismo e a necessidade de superar distâncias que o mundo contemporâneo exige a cada vez, ainda há um resguardo na arte, que torna possível a reflexão filosófica e a busca pela verdade do Ser. Trata-se de uma época, conforme ilustra Heidegger, a qual oferece um perigo ao pensar que, por sua vez, precisa de demora e de aprofundamento. A poesia, em seu poder nominativo, sempre permite à palavra manter seu caráter desocultante através de um mergulho em seus múltiplos sentidos, o que afasta qualquer possibilidade de controle da linguagem. A impactante afirmação a linguagem fala retira do homem o domínio das palavras e o devolve à poesia, à arte e à linguagem mesma. Já os corpos das esculturas não são da ordem da phisys e nem do produzir humano, mas da techné, o que confere a possibilidade do pôr-se em obra da verdade. A techné aparece, desde os gregos, como um conhecimento, sendo assim, na perspectiva da verdade grega propõe o movimento de aparecer e retrair (velar e desvelar). Mergulhados no habitual, sem esse conhecimento, inerente à reflexão através da arte e ao pensar filosófico, na ausência da estranheza da verdade e de seu movimento (ou acontecimento apropriativo), os homens se perdem de seu habitar poético. Essa possibilidade só é possível porque o habitar poético é uma condição necessária do habitar, doando a medida do homem, sua dimensão entre terra e céu. Ainda que cheio de méritos, o lugar do homem sempre foi e sempre será sobre esta terra e sob este céu, não há outra possibilidade, não há outro modo de habitar. / [en] The present thesis proposes a reflection about dwelling. Like Heidegger, we also try to reflect on the way contemporary man dwells and the consequences that contemporaneity generates in philosophical thinking. In this sense, Heidegger s perspective and its nuances substantiate this research, without limiting the way we understand dwelling. The artistic expressions with which Heidegger dialogue in his work broaden and foster this question. In Being and Time the reflection on dwelling is permeated by the familiar and by uncanniness, which, surprisingly, seems to take many forms in the work of the philosopher. The uncanniness arises in the Greek sense of astonishment, but it is also related to mystery and sacredness as well as the alien and the exile. It does not always happens in opposition to the familiar, but there is also the possibility of original confrontation with the familiar. Even with the speed, the immediacy and the need to overcome distances that the contemporary world requires each time, it seems that art still preserves the possibility of philosophical reflection and the search for the truth of Being. It is a time, as Heidegger says, that threatens thinking that, by its turn, needs time and deepening. The poetry, in its nominative power, always allows the word to keep its unveiling character, due to its multiple senses, removing all possibilities of controlling the language. The statement the language talks withdraws from man the command of the words and restores poetry, art, and language. Sculptural bodies do not belong to the order of phisys nor to human productivity, but to that of techné, which confers the possibility of setting-itself-into-the-work of the truth. Techné has appeared, since the time of the Greeks, as a knowledge, and thus the Greek perspective of truth proposes the movement of appearing and retracting (veiling and unveiling). Immersed in the familiar, without the knowledge inherent to the reflection through art and philosophical thought, in the absence of the uncanniness and of its movement (or appropriative event), men lose their poetic dwelling. This possibility is related to the poetic dwelling as a necessary condition for man s measurement, his dimension between earth and sky. Although full of merits, man s place has always been and always will be on this earth and under this sky. There is no other possibility; there is no other way of dwelling.

Memento Mitten is a project about seeing human hair from the perspective of sustainability as a viable alternative material. The project also aims to question our reluctance in Western Europe to use it in projects and innovations. It explores the process of transforming hair from waste into a functional piece (a mitten) by using traditional handicraft (hand carding, hand spinning and nålbinding) as a change agent in order to alter our perception of hair. Relating anthropologist Mary Douglas’ theory on dirt to the Freudian definition of ‘Das Unheimliche’ (The Uncanny) the project further examines and dissects the emotional aspects of Uncanniness and the anxiety we perceive when in contact with disembodied hair.  Leaning on Douglas’ theory on dirt I developed a framework for action that could potentially have the transformative ability to, when applied to creative practices, recontextualize hair from uncanny waste into an emotionally safe material. Utilizing auto-ethnographic documentation, physical exploration and participatory elements (through design interventions), four phases were identified: rejection (identifying hair as waste), re-collection (collecting hair), dissolution (taking apart the hair through acts like hand carding) and assimilation (putting the hair into a new context). These phases, which I titled The Altered Phases of Dirt, showed that they had the potential to move our inner margins of comfort beyond Uncanniness through the physical engagement found in handicraft.

There is abundant anecdotal evidence substantiating Mori’s initial observation of the "uncanny valley", a point at which human response to non-human entities drops sharply with respect to comfort (Mori, 1970), and the construct itself has a long-standing history in both Robotics and Psychology. Currently, many fields such as design, training, entertainment, and education make use of heuristic approaches to accommodate the anticipated needs of the user/consumer/audience in certain important aspects. This is due to the lack of empirical substantiation or, in some cases, the impossibility of rigorous quantification; one such area is with respect to the user’s experience of uncanniness, a feeling of "eeriness" or "wrongness" when interacting with artefacts or environments. Uncanniness, however, continues to be defined and measured in a largely subjective way, and often after the fact; an experience or product’s uncanny features are pointed out after the item has been markedly avoided or complained about by the general public. These studies are among the first seeking to determine a constellation of personality traits and physiological responses that incline the user to have a more frequent or profound "uncanny" reaction when presented with stimuli meeting the criteria for a level of "eeriness". In study 1, 395 adults were asked to categorize 200 images as uncanny, neutral, pleasant, or other. In Study 2, physiological and eye-tracking data was collected from twenty two adults as they viewed uncanny, neutral and pleasant images culled from study 1. This research identifies components of the uncanny valley related to subjective assessment, personality factors (using the HEXACO and Anthropomorphic Tendencies Scale), and biophysical measures, and found that traits unique to Emotionality on the HEXACO inventory, compounded with a form of anthropomorphism demonstrates a level of relationship to the subjective experience of uncanny stimuli. There is evidence that HEXACO type and forms of anthropomorphic perception mediates the biophysical iv expression and the subjective perception of the stimuli. In keeping with psychological hypotheses, stimuli to which the participants had greatest response centered on death, the threat of death, or mismatched/absent facial features.