Emotional Attachment to Machines:
New Ways of Relationship-Building in Japan

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

Freie Universität Berlin, Garystr. 35, 14195 Berlin, Henry Ford Building, Lecture Hall B

Free admission. No registration required.

Further information can be found in the conference program (PDF).

DAY ONE: Oct 25, 2019 | 9:30–18:30 

9:30 | Welcome

9:45–10:00 | Elena GIANNOULIS & EMTECH Team
Introduction

10:00–11:15 | Keynote I – Paul DUMOUCHEL (Ritsumeikan University, Japan)
Desiring Machines

11:15–12:00 | Kōhei OGAWA (Osaka University, Japan)
Can Androids be a Social Entity for Us?

12:00–14:00 | Break

14:00–14:45 | Tatsuya NOMURA (Ryukoku University, Japan)
Rapport with Robots and a Possibility of Its Danger

14:45–15:30 | Agnès GIARD (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) 
Marrying a Digital Creature, Fake Weddings in 2.5D Space

15:30–16:00 | Break

16:00–16:45 | Hidenobu SUMIOKA (Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories; Advanced Tele­communications Research Institute International, Japan)
Mediated Social Touch to Build Intimate Human Relationship

16:45–17:30 | Nobuhiro TAKAHASHI (The University of Electro-Communications;
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan)
Expression, Transmission, and Archiving of Humanity by Using “Interactive Humanoid Mediums”

17:30–18:30 | Sense-Roid Workshop (all participants are invited to test the Sense-Roid)

DAY TWO: 10:15–17:30 | Oct 26, 2019 

10:15 | Welcome

10:30–11:30 | Keynote II – Marc STEINBERG (Concordia University, Canada)
Producing Intimacy: Characters and/as Mobile Media

11:30–12:15 | Giulia DE TOGNI (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Feeling the Heart in the Robot: Will ‘Robotic Hearts’ replace Human Hearts in AI-driven Health and Social Care Systems?

12:15–14:00 | Break

14:00–14:45 | Anne ARONSSON (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Social Robots in Elderly Care: The Turn toward Emotional Machines in Contemporary Japan

14:45–15:30 | Véronique AUBERGÉ (Laboratoire d’Informatique de Grenoble, France)
“Socio-Affective Glue Robots” and Elderly Isolated People

15:30–16:00 | Break

16:00–16:45 | Erez GOLANI SOLOMON (Waseda University, Japan; Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design, Israel)
A Temple is a Machine for the Dead, and for the Living

16:45–17:30 | Panel Discussion
Chair:       Agnès Giard
Panelists:  Paul Dumouchel, Kōhei Ogawa, Carman Ng (University of Bremen), Marc Steinberg, Hidenobu Sumioka