The Internet of (Japanese) Things: Cultural Protocols in an Augmented Age

The Internet of (Japanese) Things: Cultural Protocols in an Augmented Age

Paul Roquet - Assistant Professor of Japanese Studies, MIT

Thursday, November 10, 2016 - 4:00pm to 5:30pm
Room 203, Henry R. Luce Hall See map
34 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, CT 06511

For several decades now, IT developers in Japan have battled with their colleagues in other parts of the world for a chance to shape the ubiquitous computing protocols of the future. But as with the internet before it, attempts to establish global standards for ubiquitous computing continually bump up against the disparate needs and practices of specific populations. This talk explores debates over how to build a ubiquitous computing network with Japan in mind, from specific aspects of Japanese communication and urban design to the particular challenges of an aging and shrinking population. As algorithmic controls edge their way into everything from transportation to the tracking of emotions, I argue the need to foreground a cultural politics of protocol.


Paul Roquet is assistant professor of Japanese Studies at MIT. He is the author of Ambient Media: Japanese Atmospheres of Self (Minnesota, 2016), as well as other essays on literature, film and animation. This talk draws from his current research on new forms of environmental individuation emerging with augmented reality tools and digital compositing software. 

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Japan