Auto-Dali Prosthetic, 2000, copyright Flowers East, London
The title of this exhibition, 'Uncanny Valley', comes from a graph devised by Masahiro Mori. The graph illustrates the varying degrees of unease felt when we encounter something unexpected. For instance, if we expect to shake a human hand and grasp one that looks perfectly normal, but find it is cold and spongy, we experience a feeling of revulsion. When we anticipate stillness, movement is disturbing. An inert object, like a cupboard, can be frightening if it moves. The most terrifying experience, at the very bottom of Mori's 'Uncanny Valley', is a moving corpse.
Mori's description of our responses to the unexpected was one of the major inspirations that set Tim Lewis on the path to creating his idiosyncratic machines.
A catalogue to accompany the exhibition is available priced £8.95 (plus p+p). It is available by mail order from National Museums Liverpool's trading arm, NMGM Enterprises.