Nello Barile, IULM University Milan, IT
Satomi Sugiyama, Franklin University, CH

Robotics has made its entry into the sphere of intimacy, thus our notion of intimacy will need to play a central role when we consider the future direction of social robotics. The aim of this on-going research project is to understand the emotional relationship between human and artificial agents, and furthermore, to reflect upon the effects of social robotics on the quality of human intimacy. Our methodological approach consists in a combination of film analysis and qualitative interview. In this paper, we offer brief analyses of the films that are specifically concerned with the theme of love, intimacy, and romance in relation to robots and non-physical artificial agents. Two films were selected for this purpose: Her and I am Here, both of which were produced by Spike Jonze. We then propose a working theoretical framework that guides our future empirical studies.