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Modelling emotion, perfecting heart: disassembling technologies of affect with an android bodhisattva in Japan
Author(s) -
White Daniel,
Katsuno Hirofumi
Publication year - 2023
Publication title -
journal of the royal anthropological institute
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.62
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1467-9655
pISSN - 1359-0987
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9655.13813
Subject(s) - affect (linguistics) , feeling , bodhisattva , android (operating system) , affective computing , performative utterance , emerging technologies , buddhism , computer science , psychology , human–computer interaction , artificial intelligence , aesthetics , social psychology , communication , art , history , archaeology , operating system
As part of a surge in technologies with so‐called ‘artificial emotional intelligence’, robotics engineers and Buddhist monks in Japan have developed an android bodhisattva to deliver teachings at a popular Zen temple. Like many recent robots in Japan, the android is designed to impact visitors’ feelings. For this reason, it can be called a ‘technology of affect’. In order to communicate how new affective technologies are facilitating intimacy in human‐machine relations in Japan, we employ the concept of ‘disassembling’. By conceptually disassembling technologies of affect and placing them in performative contexts, we show how technologies of affect also disassemble established associations between artificial agents and the feelings they evoke in popular imaginaries. We argue that identifying these disassembling processes helps demonstrate how emerging AI technologies can engender social change at the level of affect through evocative depictions of machine emotion.