Narrating Emotional Closeness between Humans and Machines in Japanese (Popular) Culture and Literature

Conference Organized by the ERC-Funded Research Project
“Emotional Machines: The Technological Transformation of Intimacy in Japan” (EMTECH)

Event Date: 14–15 October, 2022
Organizers: Elena Giannoulis and Berthold Frommann

Link for joining the video conference: https://fu-berlin.webex.com/meet/berthold.frommann

Day 1: 09:45–14:00 CEST | 14 October, 2022 (Fr)

• 09:45–10:00 | Welcome

PANEL 1: Intimacy and Emotion in Human-Machine Interaction
(Chair: Carman Ng)

• 10:00–10:45 | Narratives of Human–Machine Interaction in Japanese Popular Culture
  Elena Giannoulis (Freie Universität Berlin)
  Berthold Frommann (Freie Universität Berlin)
• 10:45–11:30 | Representations and Experiences of Emotion, Intimacy, and Autonomy in Human–Robot Interaction
  Keiko Nishimura (Sophia University)
• 11:30–11:45 | - Break -

PANEL 2: Posthuman and Transhuman Imaginaries
(Chair: Elena Giannoulis)

• 11:45–12:30 | Toward Transversal Analyses of Posthuman Imaginaries
  Carman Ng
• 12:30–13:15 | On Robotic Obsolescence and Human–Machine Bonding: The Case of Three Anime
  Kris Chung Tai Li (Osaka University)
• 13:15–14:00 | (Post) Human–Machine Intimacy in Kenji Siratori’s Blood Electric
  Juno Hoay-Fern Ooi (University of Malaya)

Day 2: 10:00–13:00 CEST | 15 October, 2022 (Sa)

PANEL 3: Social Factors in Human-Machine Interaction I
Chair: Michelle H. S. Ho

• 10:00–10:45 | Reframing Socio-Cultural Trauma in the Technocene. A Psychosocial Reading of Abe Kōbō’s Inter Ice Age 4 and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun
  Veronica De Pieri (University of Bologna)
• 10:45–11:30 | Autonomy and Interdependence. Social Structures of Human–Machine Interaction in Shūkō Murase’s Ergo Proxy
  Malte Frey (University of Fine Arts Münster)
• 11:30–11:45 | - Break -

PANEL 4: Social Factors in Human-Machine Interaction II
Chair: Berthold Frommann

• 11:45–12:30 | Digital Intimacy in Human–Machine Relationships: Gendered Representations in Fiction and Beyond
  Hiromi Tanaka (Meiji University)
  Michelle H. S. Ho (National University of Singapore)

• 12:30–13:00 | Final Discussion

Language of the conference

English

Organizers

Elena Giannoulis and Berthold Frommann

Coordination

Websites

https://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/emtech

Contact

All inquiries should be sent to berthold.frommann@fu-berlin.de