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• 27 jui 2020

  28 jui 2020

  Conference, symposium - Ethnology, anthropology

  Desired Identities

  New Technology-based Metamorphosis in Japan

  In Japan, characters now invade social networks up to the point where a whole industry of character-camouflage is prompting millions of web users to merge with videogames-like creatures. How can we understand this phenomenon? What social changes does it contribute to shape and to mirror?During the course of an international workshop, researchers from various disciplines are invited to share their experiences and outcomes concerning this phenomenon, which has been stamped kyara-ka, “transforming into a character” (Aihara Hiroyuki, 2007). It is now giving birth to what Nozawa Shunsuke (2013) calls “an emerging art of self–fashioning”. Based on elaborate techniques of disguises, the kyara-ka phenomenon covers a variety of communication strategies and practices. Exploring all the aspects of this “thingification of humans”, the workshop will reflect on how and why a growing number of people market themselves as characters.

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• 23 déc 2019

  Paris

  Call for papers - Ethnology, anthropology

  Desired Identities

  New technology-based metamorphosis in Japan

  In Japan, the kyara-ka phenomenon, ‘transforming into a character’ (Aihara Hiroyuki, 2007) is now giving birth to what Nozawa Shunsuke (2013) calls ‘an emerging art of self–fashioning.’ Based on elaborate disguise techniques, the kyara-ka phenomenon covers a variety of communication strategies and practices: cosplay, kigurumi, Vtubing, utaloid voice banks, use of voice-image filters to upload videos where humans look like characters… Exploring all the aspects of this ‘thingification of humans’, the conference will reflect on how and why a growing number of people market themselves as characters. The conference goal is to address the complexity of issues raised by these voluntary and, perhaps, ironical acts of obliteration. What is the profile of men and women who transform themselves into computer-graphic creatures? How do they deal with being loved only through their digital alter-ego? What little or grand narratives are being produced alongside? Can we still deal with the phenomenon in terms of authenticity (original) versus artificiality (copy)? What negotiations or refusals underly the use of characters as social masks?

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• 25 oct 2019

  26 oct 2019

  Berlin

  Conference, symposium - Ethnology, anthropology

  Emotional attachment to machines

  New ways of relationship-building in Japan

  Currently, technologies that foster emotional connections between humans and digital beings are perceived as a threat by many. Because emotional devices are considered to be make-believe systems based on ‘simulation’ (which is often confused with lying, deceit or fraud), emotional technologies could potentially be suspected of affecting human sexual identity or disrupting social bonds. This Symposium will examine the ways in which humans form intimate relationships with ‘emotionally-intelligent entities’ (robots, digital characters, downloadable boyfriend…) and what purposes these relationships to machines serve for them. 

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• 15 déc 2019

  Leipzig

  Call for papers - Asia

  Locating negative affects in post-reform China

  This panel takes the prevalence of positivity in post-reform China as an invitation to investigate its opposites: the variety of negative ordinary affects that can be viewed as ensuing from state-induced “situations of restricted agency”. What can we learn from the various forms of negativity that morph out of the socio-political circumstances of post-reform China, and how to tread a fine line between the risk of romanticization and analytical dismissal? Under what conditions do the expression and performance of negative affects constitute “a manifestation of autonomy from state directives” in the context of pervasive “happiness” campaigns? Or is their work ambivalent, if not problematic, especially when they come to be associated with specific marginalized groups?

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• 31 oct 2018

  Call for papers - Asia

  Sinophone musical worlds and their publics

  China Perspectives / Perspectives Chinoises

  Recent success of Chinese reality television singing competitions broadcasted on national television or streamed directly on the internet, has shown the extent of musical genres represented in the Chinese world, from pop to folk via hip-hop or rock ’n’ roll. The popularity of new musical styles up to then considered as deviant as well as the recent attempts of the State to intervene directly on musical contents, tend to blur the distinctions between “mainstream” (流行) music, “popular” (民间) music as non-official, “underground” (地下) music or even “alternative” (另类) music. This call for papers aims at promoting a better understanding of the transformations of Chinese “musical worlds”, in the sense that Becker gave to “art worlds”, which stresses the role of cooperation and interactions between the different actors of the artistic sphere.

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• 24 mai 2013

  25 mai 2013

  26 mai 2013

  Taipei

  Conference, symposium - Ethnology, anthropology

  Bodily Cultivation & Cultural Learning

  9th International Symposium of CORPUS International Group for the Cultural Study of the Body

  Le 9e symposium international de CORPUS groupe international d'études culturelles sur le corps aura lieu à Taipei du 24 au 26 mai prochain. Organisé avec l'académie Sinica et l'université nationale des arts de Taiwan, il rassemblera des intervenants venus d'une dizaine de pays sur le thème « Éducation du corps et apprentissage culturel ».

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