Japanese Film Workshop

[Patrick Noonan]

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: patnoonan at berkeley.edu

Patrick Noonan
PhD Candidate
East Asian Languages and Cultures, Film Studies
U.C. Berkeley



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