Workshop “Artificial Sociality”
Thursday, 13 November 2025 - Friday, 14 November 2025 Organized by B08, P05, B06

We kindly ask to register for the workshop

About the workshop

The rise of semi-autonomous agents, such as self-driving cars, voice assistants, industrial robots or generative machine learning models, shapes new forms of interaction and cooperation between human actors and technical agents. The workshop “Artificial Sociality” focuses on the diverse and heterogeneous configurations of human-machine relationships and takes an interdisciplinary perspective to examine which new forms of human-machine sociality can be derived from the increasing implementation of AI technologies, sensors and synthetic agents.

The aim of the first part of the workshop is to bring researchers from various disciplines and artists into an open dialog and to consider from an interdisciplinary perspective which new forms of human-machine sociality can be derived from the increasing implementation of AI technologies, sensors and synthetic agents.

The second part takes a more interactive format with a co-design session that connects the ideas from part one to practical design exploration. The program starts with four discussion groups, each focused on a key theme: the definition of artificial sociality and its determining factors (including machine–machine relationships), the domains and use cases where artificial sociality proves beneficial, the implications of digital artefacts as social actors, and the challenges in building “good” social relationships with AI. After these discussions, the hands-on part invites each group to select a domain or use case, choose a type of relationship within it, and develop contrasting scenarios—a dystopian “Black Mirror” vision and a utopian “White Mirror” vision. This collective exercise aims to spark critical debate and produce concrete insights for the design of AI-driven systems.

Venue

Universität Siegen
Campus Herrengarten
AH-A 217/18
Herrengarten 3
57072 Siegen

Programm

Thursday, November 13, 2025

10:00 – 10:45
Welcome and Introduction: Perspectives on Artificial Sociality from the CRC and its Subprojects
11:00 – 12:00
On Human-Robot Collaboration, Stuart Reeves (University of Nottingham)
12:00 – 13:00
Familiarity and Strangeness in Encounters with Artificial Agents: A Phenomenological Perspective, Tom Poljanšek (Georg-August-University Göttingen)
14:30 – 15:30
A Matter of Performance: How AI Takes Social Roles, Sascha Dickel (Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz)
16:00 – 17:00
Trusting (too much) in Social Robots, Kerstin Fischer (University of Southern Denmark)
17:15 – 18:00
Closing Discussion Day 1: Common Threads, Interesting Intersections, and Open Questions

Friday, November 14, 2025

09:00 – 09:15
Introduction to Day 2
09:15 – 10:15
AI-Interaction in Performance and Theatre, Till Müller-Klug (Interrobang Performance Berlin)
10:30 – 12:00
Co-Design Workshop: Imagining Futures with Artificial Sociality Part 1
13:00 – 14:30
Co-Design Workshop: Imagining Futures with Artificial Sociality Part 2
14:45 – 15:30
Final Discussion: Learnings and Outlook

Contact

SFB 1187 “Medien der Kooperation”
Hendrik Bender
hendrik.bender[æt]uni-siegen.de


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