| Uncanny valley is a context problem. Weird-looking teeth aren't just a trivial detail, they ruin the credibility of the whole. Great artists don't just notice and represent (and abstract) details, they frame them in a context which is greater than the sum of its parts. The Van Eyck isn't really photorealistic. It wasn't possible to paint true photorealism back then because you need modern pigments and media to do that. But it isn't even what Van Eyck was trying to do. The painting is really about a story, and the details are there to make the story feel more vivid. There's certainly an element of exploring representation and technique for its own sake. But the point of the painting is the story it tells - the experience it creates - not whether the dog's fur and the mirror are perfectly rendered. It's very difficult to get engineers to think in terms of viewer/user experience. Engineer brains are focussed on solving technical problems and creating tools, not on creating delightful or captivating experiences for non-engineers. Business people can be slightly better at experiences, but there's always the shady temptation to create manipulative and exploitative experiences. The arts are the only place where the audience experience is the main point of the exercise. Technical skill is only ever a means to an end, and if the end doesn't work on its own terms the technical skill is irrelevant. |