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What happens when some of our most intimate and culturally significant rituals become entangled with new technologies? How could design and technology reshape funerals, mourning, and remembrance in Japan in the near-future? These are the central questions of Interfuit, the speculative short film which had its Canadian premiere this August at a screening sponsored by the School of Interactive Arts & Technology (SIAT) and supported by 51ÁÔÆæÈë¿ÚLive and the .

has received international festival recognition, including Best Indie Short at the 9th Tokyo International Cinema Awards, an Honorable Mention at the Golden Harvest Film Festival, and selections at film festivals in Japan, Italy, and the United States. Through the story of a man revisiting his father’s virtual funeral space, the 38-minute short film imagines new forms of remote attendance, digital memorialization, and remembering, inviting us to consider how new technologies could change the ways we experience grief and connection.

Held in the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema at 51ÁÔÆæÈë¿ÚGoldcorp Centre for the Arts, the evening began with a brief introduction by SIAT professor William Odom to the role of design and filmmaking in exploring possible technological futures. Following Odom’s introduction, Interfuit’s producer, Daisuke Uriu, gave a few contextual remarks before starting the film.

The screening concluded with a lively panel discussion and Q&A with Urui, Odom, UBC Associate Professor Ayaka Yoshimizu, and SIAT PhD student Sam Barnett. The panelists conversed about the film before answering questions from the audience.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

Ayaka Yoshimizu (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Teaching in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia. She is an interdisciplinary scholar trained in cultural studies, media and communication studies, and embodied, sensory, and performative ethnographic methodologies. Her research focuses on transnational migration within Asia and across the Pacific Ocean; carceral and precarious mobilities; migrant women in the sex trade; and the politics of memory and memorialization. Her current project examines memorial sites, objects, and practices that commemorate Japanese sex workers engaged in the transnational, interracial sex trade during the late 19th and early 20th centuries across Japan and Canada.

Sam Barnett is a PhD student in the School of Interactive Arts & Technology at 51ÁÔÆæÈë¿Ú, where he works at the intersection of design research, filmmaking and critical pedagogies. His work with speculative filmmaking explores what film can do to extend and embody the qualities of design artefacts. More broadly, he uses design practice to engage teenagers on how data systems shape their lives.

Daisuke Uriu is an Associate Professor in the School of Design and Engineering at Shibaura Institute of Technology and Principal Investigator at the . His research explores design for mourning, memorialization, memorial rituals, and honoring the deceased. With a foundation in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) design research, he focuses on developing innovative designs through digital media technologies, envisioning future approaches to mourning and memorialization.

William Odom is a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher interested in designing and studying technology that positively shapes the human condition in terms of supporting personal growth, meaning making, and social innovation, as well as facilitating change capable of crafting viable human and environmental futures. Will is an Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Arts + Technology at 51ÁÔÆæÈë¿Ú where he directs the .