Japanese Film Workshop

[ryan.cook at yale.edu]

Hi Pat,

I'm going to try to make it to this, though my partner Michael is arriving in
Tokyo I think on the 14th which could make things difficult.  If I don't see
you there let's get together sometime soon.  I'm staying in Waseda now.  Hope
you're doing well!

Ryan


Quoting Patrick Noonan <patricknoo at gmail.com>:

> Dear KineJapaners,
>
> Please join us for the next meeting of the Japanese Film Workshop on  
> Thursday, October 14 from 7 to 9PM, at Meiji Gakuin University,  
> Shirokane Campus. The venue is *room 7418* on the 4th floor of the  
> Hepburn hall (a tall building standing next to the main building). 
> The  Japanese Film Workshop is open to all, and directions from 
> stations  and the campus map are attached below as a PDF file.
>
>
> "Bishōjo Games: Techno-Intimacy and the Virtually Human in Japan"
> Patrick W. Galbraith
> Ph.D., Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies,  
> University of Tokyo
>  http://www.otaku2.com/articleView.php?item=213
>
>
> Otaku are intimately connected to the global imagination of living  
> with media and technology. They are described as “children of media 
>  and technology” (Grassmuck 1990), “socially inept but often  
> brilliant technological shut-ins” (Greenfeld 1993) or 
> “pathological- techno-fetishist[s]” (Gibson 1996). In their 
> world, “Technology is  your companion. Technology is your teacher. 
> Technology is your friend.  Technology is your livelihood. 
> Ultimately, technology becomes your  reality” (Greenfeld 1994). The 
> overarching theme is that otaku are  “posthuman,” more 
> comfortable with technology than people, confused  about the 
> difference between the real and the virtual. The basic  logic, 
> summarized as losing humanity to the onslaught of technology,  
> desperately needs to be problematized. This paper proposes that otaku 
>  are seeking a new understanding of (human) being in the 
> technological  condition. It examines bishōjo games, which run the 
> gamut from  conversation to pornography, and comprise a huge industry 
> in Japan  that blurs the line between direct, mediated and purely 
> machine contact.
>
>
> For more information, please contact: patnoo