cynthia: the mannequin who became a superstar
cynthia: cast with legs forever chastely crossed. her maker, artist lester gaba took her everywhere in the new york night scene. she was a famous socialite in-and-of-herself and, after life magazine featured her in a spread, she became a household name. she must have only attended events where one could sit the duration.
"among all the psychical uncertainties that can become a cause for the uncanny feeling to arise, there is one in particular that is able to develop a fairly regular, powerful and very general effect: namely, doubt as to whether an apparently living being really is animate and, conversely, doubt as to whether a lifeless object may not in fact be animate – and more precisely, when this doubt only makes itself felt obscurely in one’s consciousness."
on the psychology of the uncanny, 1906
ernst jentsch
