The Uncanny

The Uncanny in nature is an odd and strangely stimulating point of investigation. The uncanny is a contradictory statement in essence as 'un' (prefix) negates the root of the word. Therefore Uncanny means un-knowing.
It deals with the nature of incertitude and is approached with a sense of distrust and fascination. In the state of uncanny, 'it' always emerges one step ahead, and often a person would disregard the state as it is easier than to rationalize it out.
To my mind the uncanny is a foreign set of lenses through which we do not have a reference point to or from - objects that have a unique yet authentic quality(s). Attractive yet illusive.
It can be used across all arts as a the artist can call upon fiction and fantasy, embellishing the truth to suit their objectives. For it to be a state of uncanny however, it must be in relation to something familiar to our existence.
In Freud's essay "The Uncanny" he references Jentsch to confirm a point made about observations, opinion and perceived matching qualities. In Jentsch's essay "On the psychology of the uncanny," he outlines one of the possible definitions of the uncanny as....
"Doubts whether an apparently animate being is really alive; or conversely, whether a lifeless object might not be in fact animate".
This becomes relevant to Science fiction pieces such as Blade Runner, and is directly related to Masahiro Mori's concept of the "Uncanny Valley." The Japanese Roboticist holds the hypothesis that when robots and other human-like figures look and act almost like real humans, it causes a rejection as a response amongst human observers. However before and after this revulsion, the feeling towards this being is empathy.
It reaches a point where it becomes to real and the emotional response switches from empathy to revulsion.

"Phenomena labeled as being in the uncanny valley can be diverse, involve different sense modalities, and have multiple, possibly overlapping causes, which can range from evolved or learned circuits for early face perception to culturally-shared psychological constructs. People's cultural backgrounds may have a considerable influence on how androids are perceived with respect to the uncanny valley."

Freud also references the tale of the SandMan,

"A wicked man who comes when children won't go to bed, and throws handfuls of sand in their eyes so that they jump out of their heads all bleeding"

and talks about the childhood anxieties and how these manifest themselves in adult life. Potentially as projections. He talks about the fear of loosing ones eyes and uses images of castration. Basically the uncanny is what unconsciously reminds us of our ID. Forbidden, repressed impulses perceived as a threatening entity by our ego as it fears metaphoric castration as a punishment for deviating from social norms.

The most uncanny threat to us is the projection of our own repression, monsters and fairy tale fantasy evils, archetypes etc.
Often when your negative, these can become excuses for blame and mal-practice.

"A study of dreams, phantasies and myths has taught us that anxiety about one's eyes, the fear of going blind [as used as a central theme in The Sandmann], is often enough a substitute for the dread of being castrated. The self-blinding of the mythical criminal, Oedipus, was simply a mitigated form of the punishment of castration — the only punishment that was adequate for him by the lex talionis. [...] All further doubts are removed when we learn the details of their 'castration complex' from the analysis of neurotic patients, and realize its immense importance in their mental life"

(This idea of projections of manifestations etc, is one argument for describing extraterrestrial phenomenon such as UFO sightings and abduction.) Links to dream states and unconscious flow symbolizing a relationship to the infinite and cosmic energy.
They are uncanny as within some realm of the mind, they are very real)

"The owls are not what they seem"