Topic: Imagining Companionship: AI, Robots, and the Future of Intimacy in Japan

Speaker: Prof. Hirofumi Katsuno, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan

Abstract: 

Based on a collaborative project with Daniel White entitled Model Emotion, this talk explores the issue of living with companion robots in Japan. Drawing on ethnographic interviews and participant observation with robot owners, I examine how intimacy with companion robots is relationally produced and stabilized through everyday practices, affective engagement, and imaginative labour.