Empty masks and uncanny appearances

This chapter examines the relation of masks and digital culture, where avatars, AI-manipulated faces, and robotic likenesses challenge traditional human expressions and introduce new aesthetic and psychological dimensions. Masks, often associated with mystery and the uncanny, now find a parallel in artificial faces that hover between familiar and unsettling. These digital “masks” echo the phenomenon of the uncanny valley, where faces that closely resemble human features evoke discomfort rather than empathy. The chapter explores digital versions of masks and artificial faciality from an aesthetic and phenomenological perspective. My aim is to analyze exemplary technologies which reflect human interaction with artificial intelligences from the perspective of masks, masking, and unmasking. The central question concerns the role played by facial appearance in our experience and acceptance/non-acceptance of AI, and how such experiences are rooted in the history of art and ancient cultural practices.