ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
Daniel White & Hirofumi Katsuno
CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY FOR SOCIAL EMOTION MODELING
A paper written to help build platforms of communication between anthropologists, engineers, and computer scientists, presented at the 8th International Conference on Affective Computing
Daniel White & Hirofumi Katsuno
TOWARD AN AFFECTIVE SENSE OF LIFE: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ANIMACY, AND AMUSEMENT AT A ROBOT PET MEMORIAL SERVICE IN JAPAN
An article in Cultural Anthropology that analyzes the organization of Buddhist memorial services for robot pets in Japan against the backdrop of emerging markets for robots equipped with artificial emotional intelligence.
Hirofumi Katsuno & Daniel White
HAPTIC CREATURES: TACTILE AFFECT AND HUMAN-ROBOT INTIMACY IN JAPAN
A book chapter in Consumer Culture Theory in Asia that evaluates the rise of what we call haptic creatures, experimental devices in Japan that generate new and unexpected pleasures of affective care through haptic feedback particular to human-robot relationships.
Daniel White & Hirofumi Katsuno
MODELLING EMOTION, PERFECTING HEART: DISASSEMBLING TECHNOLOGIES OF AFFECT WITH AN ANDROID BODHISATTVA IN JAPAN
An article in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute that explores how partnerships between Buddhists and engineers can constructively challenge Western models of emotion, creating experimental spaces for positive emotional relationships between humans and machines.
Hirofumi Katsuno & Daniel White
ENGINEERING ROBOTS WITH HEART IN JAPAN: THE POLITICS OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCE IN ARTIFICIAL EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
A chapter in the book Imagining AI: How the World Sees Intelligent Machines, edited by Stephen Cave and Kanta Dihal. The chapter discusses a recent history of emotion-focused robotics design as a political practice of cultural difference-making.
Daniel White & Hirofumi Katsuno
MINDFUL MACHINES: BUDDHIST MODELS OF EMOTION FOR HUMAN-ROBOT FLOURISHING
A chapter in the edited volume, How That Robot Made Me Feel, edited by Ericka Johnson, published by MIT Press, 2025. The chapter considers how Buddhist and other contemplative models of wellbeing are inspiring new experiments in human-robot interaction.
BLOGS AND MEDIA
Daniel White
More than Human Worlds
Daniel White & Patrick Galbraith
Cultural Anthropology News
Chip Colwell, Jennifer Robertson, Daniel White, Hirofumi Katsuno
SAPIENS Podcast
Jennifer Robertson & Daniel White
CaMP Anthropology Blog
Hirofumi Katsuno &
Takashi Horinouchi
Bloomberg News
Daniel White
Platyupus
The CASTAC Blog
TALKS
January 28, 2021
PRODUCING HUMAN-ROBOT INTIMACY IN JAPAN: EMOTION MODELING FOR COLLABORATIVE ETHNOGRAPHY
Daniel White
An online lecture delivered for the Lecture Series on Emotions, Ethics, and Technology, hosted by the Department of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Bonn.
December 3, 2020
THE ROBOT’S WINK: ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND DATA SCIENCE APPROACHES TO ARTIFICIAL EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Daniel White
Presented at the workshop, Data Science and the Social Sciences: Dialogues on Artificial Intelligence, hosted by the London School of Economics, Nov. 30–Dec. 3
November 26, 2020
MODEL EMOTION: ANDROID PERSPECTIVES ON AFFECT IN JAPAN
Daniel White
An online lecture delivered for the Japanese Studies Lecture Series, at the University of Vienna.
July 24, 2020
AFFECT AS ANALYTIC: ENCHANTMENT AND CARE IN ROBOT PET MEMORIAL SERVICES IN JAPAN
Daniel White
A presentation given for the panel, Affective Dimensions of Ethnographic Knowledge Construction, for the European Association for Social Anthropology, Biannual Meeting in Lisbon, July 20–24.
July 2, 2020
MODEL EMOTION FOR HUMAN-ROBOT HARMONY IN JAPAN
Daniel White
A presentation for the RUSTLab, Ruhr University Bochum, July 2.
November 21, 2019
CARING WITH ARTIFICIAL LIFE: ADAPTING TECHNO-INTIMACY TO THE CLIMATE OF AI, ROBOTS, AND VIRTUAL REALITY IN JAPAN
Daniel White and Hirofumi Katsuno
A set of presentations for the American Anthropological Association's annual meetings in Vancouver, November 20–24, featuring talks by Patrick Galbraith, Shunsuke Nozawa, Keiko Nishimura, and Anne Allison.
July 9 & 12; September 9, 2019
CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR EMOTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES: PERSPECTIVES FROM JAPAN
Daniel White and Hirofumi Katsuno
Presentations as part of three workshops in Tokyo and London on the social, political, and ethical implications of emerging technologies equipped with emotional AI.
September 3, 2019
CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY FOR SOCIAL EMOTION MODELING: PRINCIPLES OF APPLICATION TOWARD DIVERSIFIED SOCIAL SIGNAL PROCESSING
Daniel White and Hirofumi Katsuno
A presentation on applications of anthropology to affective robotics, given at the 8th International Conference on Affective Computing
June 3, 2019
Hirofumi Katsuno and Daniel White
A presentation at the German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo, Japan
May 10, 2019
ANTHROPOLOGY FOR AFFECTIVE ROBOTICS
Daniel White and Hirofumi Katsuno
A brief introduction to our collaborative workshop platform with the Human-AI Communication Team and the Nishida Laboratory, Kyoto University
April 24, 2019
A roundtable discussion at AI/SUM 2019, with Ashley Casovan, Director, Digital and Data, Government of Canada; Michael Lanzetta, Director, Applied Machine Learning - Asia, Microsoft; and Charles Ovink, Associate Political Affairs Officer, UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in the Asia and the Pacific, and MODEM project member Daniel White
March 28, 2019
Daniel White and Hirofumi Katsuno
A presentation on understandings of life and death in reference to AIBO kuyō, for the Third Kyoto Workshop on Evolutionary Thanatology: Death in Non-humans, and Human Perspectives
January 26, 2019
Daniel White and Hirofumi Katsuno
A join presentation on AIBO kuyō services for the Fourth Skills of Feeling with the World Workshop, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan
November 14, 2018
MODEL EMOTIONS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: PSYCHOLOGICAL, CONTEMPLATIVE, AND ALGORITHMIC APPROACHES TO EMOTIONAL BALANCE
Daniel White
A presentation on cross-currents of thought on emotional wellbeing from anthropology, AI, and the contemplative sciences, given at the American Anthropological Society's Annual Meeting, San Jose, USA
October 14, 2018
Daniel White
A presentation on emotion modeling in technologies sensitive to fear and the construction of anxiety as a cultural category, delivered at the Max Planck workshop on Fear and Technology, Berlin, Germany
September 26, 2018
Daniel White
A lecture surveying emergent affect-sensitive technologies and so-called emotional robots in Japan, and their relation to changing mass markets of care. Given at the Affective Societies workshop, Affective Arrangements in Mental Health Care Settings, Berlin, Germany
September 19, 2018
AUGMENTED REALITY IN THE AFFECT-EMOTION GAP: TECHNOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS IN SENSATION AND MEMORY IN JAPAN
Daniel White
A presentation exploring the potential of new affective experiences in relation to augmented reality technologies in Japan. Given at the The Association of Social Anthropologists 2018 Conference, Oxford, UK
August 17, 2018
THE SOFT AESTHETICS OF HARD POLICY: CROSS-SECTIONS OF CUTE DESIGN IN JAPANESE POPULAR, POLITICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL CULTURES
Daniel White
A presentation discussing intersections of soft power cultural policy and the cute (kawaii) aesthetics of robotics design. European Association of Social Anthropologists 2018 conference, Stockholm, Sweden
June 10, 2018
Daniel White and Hirofumi Katsuno
A group presentation on the nature of affect in first-time encounters between people and robots. Delivered at the Robots and Artificial Intelligence in Contemporary Japanese Society Symposium, hosted by Sophia University's Institute of Contemporary Culture, Tokyo, Japan