Affective Technotouch | The Brocher Foundation | 20-22 June 2022

Dates: 20-22 June 2022
Venue: Fondation Brocher
Route d’Hermance 471 – CP 21 CH – 1248 Hermance, Swizerland

Event Description

This 3-day interdisciplinary workshop will explore affective technotouch, or the experiences of touching and being touched by care robots, as well as touch mediated through robotic technologies, such as telepresence and surgery robots. It will take a multidimensional view that considers how different forms of, and approaches to experiences of “technotouch” can inform each other. The overall aim is to produce insights, informed by a range of disciplinary perspectives — engineering, robotics, neuroscience, philosophy, cultural studies, medical humanities, applied ethics, sociology, disability studies — which can inform policy, practice and design regarding how care robots and robotic technologies are involved in human health and social care.  

Through presentations, robot demonstrations and interaction, and roundtable discussion, we will explore a number of themes relevant to the ethical and practical challenges of care robots, and related robotic technologies, in terms of their development and implementation in health and social care settings. Important themes that will be explored include: vulnerability, risk, care, embodiment, human health, cost, affect, intimacy, disability, social isolation and marginalization.

Contact us
For more information about this event please contact Amelia DeFalco a.i.defalco@leeds.ac.uk.