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"The relationship between man and machine is an important topic not only for the development of artificial intelligence, but also for the broad sphere of humanities and social sciences. The rapid development of advanced robotics in recent decades opens up a number of key topics, also touching on the fields of philosophy, sociology, literature, and visual arts.

Current technologies already allow robots to become increasingly close to humans in appearance, movements and facial expressions, yet our artificial "doubles" often evoke contradictory feelings. The phenomenon of unpleasant emotional reactions of humans to humanoids was described as early as the early 1970s by the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori (b. 1927), who coined the term "uncanny valley" after Sigmund Freud's famous essay Das Unheimliche from 1919. 

In this talk I will focus on the interconnectedness of the theme of the valley of distress with modern and contemporary visual culture and philosophical thinking. I will suggest overlaps into the realm of ontological thinking through some contemporary artistic approaches, particularly in the context of the work of British artist Ed Atkins (b. 1982). Atkins, who works mainly with digital technologies, creates his avatars – digital doubles reflecting current social issues and turning points in the life of the author and his immediate family," said Petra Polláková.