Unsettling

Halloween inspired. Simple question. What do you find unsettling?

I don't like old era paintings. I never liked the Mona Lisa either. Find it to be especially eerie. Once volunteered at a historical location which was rumored to be haunted. It was littered with ancient paintings and those made me more uneasy than the local stories.

I can empathize with you on the "old paintings" thing so much! I have a huge problem with anything in the Uncanny Valley, which is to say anything that is made to look like a real person/animal even though it's not; photorrealistic paintings/drawings, statues, plastic dolls (especially those with sound!), taxidermy, robots, deepfakes, even Vocaloids/UTAU... Others hold it up as the ultimate standard for art/production, but I personally think that trying to emulate a life-like style gives art a very unsettling, if not soulless quality. Hell, I myself tried when I still drew fairly often (because I stupidly wanted to emulate a friend of mine who was transitioning into a more realistic style), and those pieces are some of my least favourites because of how creepy (and phoned-in) they look.

Pretty much all medical stuff makes my stomach churn., too I've cried my eyes out before X-Rays, for crying out loud! Needless to say, being hospitalized for an accident was one of the worst moments of my life; I think I have more trauma from my hospitalization and the way I was treated at the first hospital I stayed in than from the accident itself.

shipwrecks
especially when they're still underwater. extremely unsettling ;;

Vielleroue said:

I have a huge problem with anything in the Uncanny Valley

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Random question, Vielleroue. Are you by any chance a fan of TV Tropes? I've noticed that you use some tropes in your speech quite a few times. TV Tropes is one of my all-time favorite websites.

Anyways, to answer the question, there are quite a few things that I find unsettling such as creatures that have more legs than they should have like spiders and centipedes, empty/abandoned buildings and rooms, and owls. To elaborate, regarding spiders and centipedes, I can't explain the reason, but the sight of them simply creeps me out and makes me uncomfortable. I would also be very unsettled if I was aware that one was in the house, as it could be crawling in my bed while I'm sleeping. I don't like empty/abandoned buildings because I always unconsciously assume that if I entered one, I wouldn't be alone. Maybe it's too many horror movies, but I always believed that psychopaths are squatting in them and are up to no good. As for owls, they're actually quite terrifying. I remember one night when working nights, at around 3:00 AM, I went outside for my lunch break just to get some fresh air. I stood outside at the edge of the parking lot, which was outlined by a dark, empty street and a heavily wooded area. From a distance, I noticed a creature with big glowing eyes looking at me. I thought it was a cat at first, but the more I squinted, it looked less like a cat and more like something weird that I couldn't make out. Shortly after, it flew towards me and landed closer to me. At that point, it was easy to tell that it was an owl. This owl was staring at me with its huge eyes and literally wouldn't stop. No joke, I was actually terrified. I thought it was going to attack me. I slowly walked back to the building and during my entire walk back, it just stared at me intently the whole time. I'm glad it didn't pounce on me or anything.

In one of my art classes we made plaster molds of out hands. It was only a test, so I just stuck in two fingers. Even still, it was unsettling to see a perfectly replicated version of my hand, down to the details of the fingerprint lines.

I guess in a similar sense, I'd find it somewhat unsettling to see a drawing of myself, especially in a more realistic looking art style. How much would it look like me? What features of my appearance are notable enough for the artist portray in the art?

I find uncanny valley effect unsettling too. I still remember few videos from early internet era featuring this effect and they still gives me goosebumps. I could find There is nothing and I feel fantastic. There were more videos, but I can't seem to find them anymore.

Schitzophrenia .. brr I think that's a really scary idea. that you can suddenly become a different person without even realizing it.

The idea of dying in space probably. It's not like a phobia per say and the idea probably fascinates us more than anything, but it's just an unsettling though of your body being out there in the abyss and all the ways you could die in space.

Piedrozan said:

Schitzophrenia .. brr I think that's a really scary idea. that you can suddenly become a different person without even realizing it.

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You might be thinking of DID/OSDD there. While we aren't DID/OSDD we are a system we've just been like this our entire life and most people we're close with are systems as well, and it's not that big of a deal as you might think since nearly all of us were like this since childhood and just had a moment of "wait this explains so much". Schizophrenia I can't speak much on but I've known a lot of folks with psychosis including my best friend, and they're just like anyone else and it's just Hollywood tropes that make it seem scary.

Hearing noises but you don't know where it came from.

Despite my love for early music, some of it is quite unsettling. I think I've acquired the taste for the most part, but every once in a while I'll run into a piece that just sounds unsettling. Here's an example. Now, I love Machaut and those spicy dissonances, but this one is just eerie.

While I find many things unsettling, I do want to mention my fascination, yet fear, of large bodies of water. The mystery and unique sea life (especially the deep sea) intrigues the heck out of me. And yet I squirm when I think about the horrors and dangers that lurk beneath. Whether it was the tales of sea monsters that can be traced back centuries or simply the vast emptiness and darkness that comes with the deep sea, the unsettling aspects are what drag me back to it.

Liminal spaces are unsettling too.

So many things. I'm a big weenie. But clowns are number one. I fear them. I fear them so much.

As for unsettling, I find clusters of holes really creepy. There was this one video we had as kids with a mother frog who laid its eggs in the skin of its own back... Ugh...