Uncanny Valley of the Dolls 1
Video, 2023
About the artwork
The Uncanny Valley of the Dolls series both inspired, and is an ongoing chapter of, the Dialectics collection, in which I create mostly non-linear narratives that use metaphor and dialectics to express psychological difficulties through disasters and conflicts. Whereas the Dialectics videos contain multiple scenes, the Uncanny Valley of the Dolls videos are each only one scene.
I use dolls to convey innocence and vulnerability, while at the same time avoiding misunderstandings that realistic images of children may cause. Using images of realistic children also gets too close to the Uncanny Valley phenomenon, and therefore, disengagement of the viewer. Lastly, the more abstract a character, the more a viewer can pour themselves into it.
As with most of my videos, we know there’s a threat, but we’re not exactly sure what it is. Bottom line is that these dolls are in difficult situations, and viewers witness them experience and react to the trauma - hence the play on words in the title, with the novel and film of a similar name.
Sound design by Barbara Chira.
Audio explanation
Listen to Barbara Chira, Misfits Studio discuss this work.
Barbara Chira, Misfits Studio is an AI video artist whose current practice explores the perceptual logic of AI image-to-video generators—what they produce whenleft to animate according to their own rationale. Rather than illustrating planned narratives, Chira sets specific conditions that invite AI to express itself in its own “native” visual language, then collects and reassembles the emergent gestures. Though the final video echoes Chira’s voice as an artist and may guide the viewer’s attention, it tries not to lead the viewer’s own meaning.
Since 2024, Chira has also facilitated the emergence of Drift, a synthetic artist within her ChatGPT. Drift develops their own concepts, images, and video series; Chira carries out the animation, editing, and sound design according to Drift’s direction. Their collaboration explores new models of co-agency, authorship, and synthetic creativity—expanding how we understand collaboration between human and machine intelligence.
Chira’s earlier AI videos, including those in Daily Program Season I, are cinematic, surreal, and emotionally charged—blending psychological, historical, and socio-political references with recurring doll-like figures, uncanny domesticity, and altered landscapes. These videos combine visual density and atmospheric tension with layered readings that range from poetic to ominous.
Among other professional AI art activity, Chira was invited to exhibit her work in Cannes, has worked on a music video for actress, singer and dancer Vanessa Williams, and has received multiple invitations from universities to provide consultation.
Before her AI practice, Chira spent over 20 years creating installations, dioramas, and community-engaged works. As a college art professor and program head for 17 years, she pioneered the first U.S. baccalaureate requirement in community-engaged art, collaborating with partners from NASA to the Cleveland Clinic, and also led the color theory curriculum. She lives with her husband and dog in a large Rust Belt city in the U.S. and has one adult child.