‘Re-Designing Media Communication’ Lecture (3rd ReMediCom Lecture)　

Announcement of the ‘Re-Designing Media Communication’ Lecture, (The 3rd ReMediCom Lecture)

In this lecture series, ‘Re-Designing Media Communication, (ReMediCom)’, we have been exploring the ways in which free and diverse communication occurs, considering the changing situation of communication due to the emergence of new media and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During this event, in order to discuss the possibilities and challenges of the ‘Cybernetic Avatar’ being developed under the Moonshot Research and Development Project, (Goal 1) from a historical perspective, we have invited Professor Masashi Nakahata, who specialises in Western philosophy history, and Professor Chigusa Kita, who specialises in information technology history, to give lectures.

If you are interested, please join us.

The ‘Cybernetic Avatar’ is a concept which includes ICT and robot technologies which will extend human physical, cognitive, and perceptual abilities, in addition to avatars which represent robots or 3D images as Digital Twins etc, (The Cabinet Office Moonshot Research and Development　Project,website https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/moonshot/sub1.html).

Speakers：Masashi Nakahata, (Professor Emeritus, Kyoto University) Chigusa Kita, (Professor, Kyoto University)

Commentators: Minao Kukita, (Associate Professor, Nagoya University) Naoya Fujikawa, (Associate Professor, University of Tokyo)

Organiser: Makoto Kureha, (Lecturer, Yamaguchi University)

Date and Time: March 24th, 2024, (Sunday) 13:30-17:00

Forms of Hosting: Hybrid of local venue and online

Local Venue: Campus Plaza Kyoto 6th Floor, Room 8, (Access: https://www.consortium.or.jp/about-cp-kyoto/access)

Online: Zoom Meeting, (registration required)

Program: 13:30-13:45 Explanation of Purpose, (Makoto Kureha)

13:45-15:15 Lecture 1: Masashi Nakahata ‘In medias res – Considering ‘Media’ as a Mediator Historically, (Tentative)’

15:30-17:00 Lecture 2: Chigusa Kita ‘The CA as a Pseudo-Local Synchronous Presence’

Participation Fee: Free

Registration Method: If you wish to participate online, please apply via the Google Form at the following URL by 17:00 on March 22nd, 2024, (Friday). We will send you the Zoom login information by email later. Form URL: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1MuFwi068arM-9opJzOSBjSK3l4tXpoyUfDaIAZ_0hO8/ If you wish to participate at the local venue, no advance application is necessary.

Lecture Abstracts

1. Masashi Nakahata ‘In medias res – Considering ‘Media’ as a Mediator Historically, (Tentative)’, under the overarching theme of ‘Redesigning Media Communication’. The author has been given the role of considering the theme of ‘Cybernetic Avatars’ from a historical perspective. This is quite an unusual field for one who is normally taken up with the texts of Aristotle. It is equally unusual that the author should be relating Aristotle to the above task. The relationship between the themes ‘Re-Designing Media Communication’ and ‘Cybernetic Avatars’ is a little unclear at this time, but I think the concept which connects the two, is ‘Media’. The possibility of remote operation and simultaneous execution of multiple tasks by Cybernetic Avatars is based on the principle of ‘multi-mediating items’, including an avatar of oneself in Virtual Space, which intervenes between the actor and the ‘reality’ which it targets. Returning to the theme of ‘Media’, when we look historically at the word, at its etymology, the Latin adjective ‘medius’ and the noun ‘medium’, have the basic meanings of ‘middle, centre, halfway etc, and from there they have been used to express ideas of being ‘intermediates’ in various scenarios. English of course, as the `great language Magpie`, has adopted this Latin word. The earliest example of English usage of ‘Media’, (as in ‘Media Communication’), according to the Oxford English Dictionary and others, is Francis Bacon’s ‘Advancement of Learning’, (1605) (ii. xvi. 2 ‘But yet is not of necessitie that Cogitations bee expressed by the Medium of Wordes’.). Here, Bacon argues that thoughts are not necessarily expressed by the medium of words, while listing speaking and writing as tools of transmission and citing Aristotle’s theory of language. This etymological exploration suggests that the discussion of the medium, mediated by Bacon’s argument, can be traced back to the thinking of ancient philosophers. In fact, Plato and Aristotle paid attention to the nature and role of the medium of transmission and its relationship with human thought. Plato understood ‘media’ in the above sense, as a kind of ‘totality of culture’. When describing the change of media from oral culture to literal culture, which is the background to all of this, he discusses the problem of how this media is comprehensively, and in a sense, ‘directly’ involved in human life. Accordingly, the author would like to provoke a debate away from the usual media history one, and instead, focus on the media as an intervention between the subject and the object of the action and thus the relationship with thought.
   
2. Chigusa Kita ‘The CA as a Pseudo-Local Synchronous Presence’

This idea originates from that of ‘Tele-Presence’, (Minsky, 1980) and that of ‘Tele-Existence’, (Tachi, Abe, 1982). In addition, it is deeply involved with the concern about human-machine hybrid systems dating back to World War II and cyborgs, and from the perspective of media-mediated communication. It is also connected to the sense of ‘loss of locality’ brought about by electrical communication and media which enable diverse self-presentation. In the lecture, the speaker will provide a perspective on the CA as a Pseudo-Local Synchronous Presence, and will present an overview of the related issues.

Sponsored by: Moonshot Research and Development Project Goal 1, ‘Realization of a Society that can use Cybernetic Avatar Safely and Securely’, (PM: Fumio Shimpo, Project Website: https://avatar-life.jp/ja/), ‘The Realization of an Avatar-Symbiotic Society　where Everyone can Perform Active Roles without Constraint’, (PM: Hiroshi Ishiguro, Project Website: https://avatar-ss.org/)

This lecture will be held via the support of the Hitachi Foundation 2021, (53rd), Kurata Encouragement Fund, ‘Redesigning Media Communication, – Applied Philosophical Inquiry Focusing on ‘Bodiliness’, ‘Language’, and ‘Environment’, (Principal Investigator: Makoto Kureha). The lectures, ‘Virtual Beautiful Girl Nem’ Lecture and Takashi Narumi Lecture have been held already. This time, we will focus on the various issues related to Cybernetic Avatars under the support of the Moonshot Research and Development Project Goal 1.

Contact: Makoto Kureha (kureha@yamaguchi-u.ac.jp)