Sdtrk: ‘Casualty ward’ by Kline Coma Xero

More news about Dolls and Gynoids? Well, yes.

+ As you’ll recall, I’d begun Part I of this post with a video of a Gynoid named Asuna, and how it’s nigh-impossible to find info on her in English or Japanese. As she seemed to be rather well-made — fluid movement, realistic appearance — I believe she would’ve gotten more media exposure were it not for two reasons. One, it’s nigh-impossible to to find info on her in English or Japanese, and Two, she made her debut only a couple of days prior to these two Gynoids, who had much more exposure in the media. You might’ve seen them yourself; here’s Otonaroid and Kodomoroid:

Created by godlike robotics genius Hiroshi Ishiguro, which should go without saying, Otonaroid (‘otona’ being Japanese for ‘middle-aged woman’) and Kodomoroid (‘Kodomo’ meaning ‘child’) are permanent staffers at Miraikan, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, in Odaiba, Tokyo. And no, I’m not just being my usual self when I say they’re staffers; the two aren’t a temporary exhibit, unlike the way other locations have treated other Gynoids. Further proof: Otona-san has her very own calling card. And yes, I’d Emailed her. (Her PR people replied instead… boooo.)

The android's business card pic.twitter.com/cjagpaHkaL

— timhornyak (@robotopia) June 24, 2014

They’re similarly-built, in that they use servos for movement of their faces, heads, and arms, but each one is a bit different. Otona-san is a telepresence robot, meaning that she’s controlled remotely via a human operator, who can also speak through her using a microphone. It’s a bit odd, however, as Otona-san doesn’t really have a voice of her own; meaning that if a bloke operates her, you’d hear his voice out of her mouth. Which is disconcerting, and, let’s face it, a boner-killer.
Kodomo-chan’s job is that of a newscaster, if you can dig that. Every day, she’ll read the day’s news in her own voice, as well as various tweets, from her own rather ‘THX 1138’-esque viewing room. Going by some of the clipped syllables as heard in the video above, she’s probably utilising the popular Vocaloid speech synthesis programme, or something like it. Both Gynoids are also working in the context of gathering data on human interaction for Prof. Ishiguro’s studies.

It would seem that Otona-san also likes the music of Damon Albarn, former lead vocalist of Blur, as he performed some songs from his latest solo release, Everyday robots, at Miraikan for her and a small audience of fifty, on 25 July.

During the show, Otonaroid® moved her body in time with Albarn’s performance. She hummed along to the lyrics, and her expressions seemed to change when the melody would take a sad turn or during up-tempo parts of the songs. After finishing all of his songs, Albarn approached his special Otonaroid® guest and bowed to her while looking her in the eyes. Otonaroid® seemed very happy and bowed in return.
the entire article is here

This leads me to believe that, when Otona-san was younger, she more than likely preferred Blur to Oasis! As any sensible person would.

+ If I told you that 4woods have been busy this year, would you really be surprised? Next to Orient industry, they are the Doll studio equivalent of the Hardest Working Man In Show Business. Which I suppose makes Orient industry Soul Brother Number 1, maybe? But before I try to awkwardly shoehorn another analogy of Doll manufacturers to James Brown — even though I know that’s why everyone visits ‘Shouting etc etc’ — do take a look at their latest sexy miss, Mitsuki.

‘Ugh, Febreeze isn’t cutting it. I’m definitely gonna need bleach for this’

Mitsuki — and for naptime, there’s Sleeping Mitsuki — would be 4woods’ newest newest heads, made specifically for their newest newest body series, A.I.Doll Allure. Here’s the summary from the site itself:

AIdoll Allure is designed to have beautiful large yet natural ideal breasts. For those who like breasts, it is 4woods’ signature model.

“Breasts” are the area that is touched most in doll’s body. This is an attractive spot any man feel most feminine in female body. We created AIdoll Allure to satisfy men’s instinct in terms of “large breasts”. They offer perfect shape, size, gap in between and naturalness. The model achieved ultimate feel and durability by applying our technology.

We put together these features and released the highest end model “AIdoll Allure” our 6th body model.

Personally, I like the quotes around ‘breasts’. But it’s not as if their assessment is wrong! 4woods also mention that they’ve put a bit more work into the detail on her muscle tone, nerves, veins, and bones. That’s what I like — looks Organik, but is still quite Synthetik. I approve!
As I’d mentioned, the Mitsuki and Sleeping Mitsuki heads only fit the Allure body. However, if Mitsu-chan fails to appeal to your aesthetic sense, you can purchase a Sarina head for it, or a Yu-ki head, or Lilica, Hatsuki, or Elina. In fact, if you were to click on any of those named just mentioned, you’d see how those heads look on the new Allure body, with a series of brand-new photosets.

Left, Elina and her near-illegible shirt; right, Lilica is questioning the camera angle

And for those of you in the States who were dithering about purchasing an A.I.Doll, but were loath to deal with import tax, dig this: 4woods USA. They have an office in California now, baby!! Now, you no longer have to worry about customs duty fees or identification clearance, and your lass will ship from the manufacturer in Japan, to the 4woods USA office in San Diego, where she’ll arrive at your home via UPS.
I see that twinkle in your eyes, and it’s rightly deserved.

+ Last month, a site called The Daily Dot published an article by Greg Stevens entitled ‘Would you have sex with a robot?‘ No guesses as to why I’ve linked to it.

Much of the allure (and difficulty) of sexual encounters lies in the tension between seeing the other person as a sentient subject with his or her own desires, on the one hand, and seeing that person as nothing more than an object of our own desires, on the other.

Philosopher Martin Buber wrote, in his book Ich und Du (usually translated as “I and Thou”), that there are two essential ways that we can relate to the world around us: there is the I-it relationship, where we interact with things in our environment as mere objects, and there is the I-thou relationship, where we feel an empathic connection or bond with whatever or whoever we are engaging.

What determines whether we are engaging in an I-it or I-thou relationship isn’t just a matter of whether we talking about a relationship with a rock or a person. It has to do with the attitude that we take and the way we feel about our connection to the “other.” When you approach your partner purely as an object of lust, a physical thing that you can use to satisfy your desires, then you are engaging in an I-it relationship with your partner.

What makes robots different from sex toys, and for some people what makes them creepier, is that robots trigger us to make the opposite kind of psychological flip-flop: like a mirror-image of classic sexual objectification, robotic sexual partners encourage us to look at mere inanimate objects as sentient, conscious, willful, and desirous.

It isn’t as tough as you might think. The more traits any object has in common with humans, the more likely we are to assume that the object has feelings, has desires, and even has an independent free will. This phenomenon, studied by psychologists as anthropomorphism, is deep-seated and driven by the most basic mechanisms in our brain. We can’t help it: give something a voice, a face, and make it move like a human being, and we will make all kinds of assumptions about its thoughts, feelings, and intentions.

In fact we do this with people, as well, especially during sex. All sexual encounters (and all romantic relationships, for that matter), involve a certain amount of fantasy. The image you have in your head of the person you are involved with is always a grab bag of your own projections, assumptions, desires, and expectations, alongside (hopefully) some of traits that genuinely belong to the person in question.

With just the right robotic companion, you would likely act no differently than you already do with your human partners during sex, responding to them with a complexity of desires.
the entire article is here

From what I’ve personally encountered, a large part of what non-iDollators aren’t keen on is the fact that many of us treat our Dolls as partners, not merely things. That’s due to our imaginations filling in the blanks, of course, but it’s difficult to say if the general populace will feel the same way when humanoid robots can respond to Organik interaction, in a way that seems spontaneous. Will they still use the tired complaint that interacting with an artificial person isn’t as good as someone ‘real’ then?
While they’re busy pondering that, however, those of us who are attracted to the so-called Unheimlich will be quite satisfied with what our affictitious partners can do for us, as well as what we can do for them…

+ Phoenix studios, where the world’s Boy Toy Dolls originate from, have come out with a brand-new silicone lass in their Celestial series, which is fab news. Meet Sky! She comes in two configurations: the peachy Caucasian Sky, and the mocha version known as Dark Sky, which is a name I thought rather amusing.

But do they know they’re twins? Someone should tell them

As she’s another entry in their ‘Celestial Bodies’ series, Sky is 4’10”, less than 60 lbs, has measurements of B:32 / W:22 / H:32, and wears a US sz 5 shoe. Not only that, but she also sports eyes that open and close as well. Not bad, Phoenix studios! *thumbs up*

+ I’d mentioned R Stevens’ Diesel Sweeties in the previous part; he also does double duty (sounds disgusting) making teh funies on a site called Medium. Not surprisingly, this one caught my eye, as A Valid Point Is Made. Click the pic for the whole thing:

+ And for those of you who unfortunately missed Amber Hawk Swanson‘s engaging Sidore Mark II / Heather > LOLITA performance back in December 2013, and are curious as to what watching the entire 70 hours performance would entail, this potted version should give you an idea of what you’re in store for:

The super-condensed version is fab and all, but if you have the time to spare, you should check out the whole thing (in parts) on Amber’s official Vimeo channel. For one, the 10min video doesn’t get into the expansive and insightful conversations she had with me, fellow iDollator Jesse1965, and a couple of activists for marine mammal life, as well as fellow iDollator Mahtek phoning in and reading the eulogy he’d written for Phoebe Mk I. And there’s always me racing my way through Nabokov’s Lolita. Besides, if you had time to watch Warhol’s 1967 film ‘****’ (clocking in at twenty five hours), then you’ve got time to watch Sidore Mark II / Heather > LOLITA. Plus, Amber’s work has more Synthetiks in it! Synthetiks make everything better. Fact

UPDATE (12 AUG 2014): Speaking, as we were, about Gynoid Android Asuna, alert reader Ron has uncovered a couple of videos and extreme closeup pics of our mysterious silicone lady, which you can check out here

Sdtrk: ‘The outside’ by Martial Canterel

Happy 23rd! See, this is what happens when you procrastinate. I blame Twitter. I blame myself! I blame BLAME!, the dystopian cyberpunk manga by Tsutomu Nihei. Apparently the title is pronounced ‘blam’, so I blame that, too. Or perhaps I blam it. Nevertheless, there’s a metric ton of things to cover, so let’s proceed!…

+ We’re starting off this half with a Synthetik lass from Japan, with the name of Android Asuna. I’m going to gloss over the fact that she really should be named ‘Gynoid Asuna’, as perhaps her creator was going for an alliterative thing, but I digress.
At any rate, I know virtually nothing about her, apart from the fact that the company that made her is named A-lab, and Google is loath to give up any further secrets. So until we hunt down some more substantial information, let’s watch her in action over and over:

+ Curiously enough, had things not gone all pear-shaped last September, I would’ve attended this year’s DolLApalooza. I blame being on the dole for nearly half a year. But Abyss creations, makers of the RealDoll, debuted a new face for the RealDoll 2 line by the name of Natalie. Is her appearance up to the same standards as all the other faces that Abyss creations make? I think so, and I think you’ll agree with me.

Yes, Natalie’s eyes can see into your soul. Which is no excuse for you to stare at her chest

That face will fit a Body D, which is the one with the impressive bustline and the superior posterior commonly associated with the Brooklyn-type, so that might be a combination you want to look into.

+ While Orient industry’s Ya su ra gi line of CandyGirls brings bold new meaning to the term heart-stoppingly attractive, remember that their Real Love Doll Ange line is still nothing to sneeze at, either. At it happens, there are two new heads available for the Ange series, in the form of Riri and Tomomi.

Above, Riri, regretting once again that her air conditioning is still out; below, Tomomi, showing off her minimalist room decor

ORIENT INDUSTRY: they’ve been making Synthetik women since the late Seventies, so they totally know the score.

+ What have Anatomical Doll been up to recently? Well, quite a lot. So much, in fact, that as of May, they’ve placed a freeze on receiving any new orders until further notice (more than likely Autumn 2014). Here’s Oleg, explaining why via an Email he’d sent me:

We have taken many orders from all world and now temporarily have stopped till the autumn reception of new orders.

We need time to execute the accepted orders. Also time is necessary for full reconstruction of our dolls.

How we begin, you see. A new head ” the girl without a name “, ” older face “, Sleeping Oksana ” – three new heads for one and a half month.

Still, plus to these to three, in work now eight new heads. Natalia will be the ninth head. Total – twelve nevest [sic] face.

Also all bodies will be replaced with more realistic.

So basically, not only is the company playing catch-up with existing orders, Oleg is also planning to replace Anatomical Doll’s four body types with more realistic ones, as well as refining the new heads that he’s recently created. What do those heads look like, you ask? Funny you should ask!

On the left would be ‘The Girl Without A Name’, and on the right is ‘Older Face’. As you can tell, Oleg’s not come up with official names for them yet. I’m fairly certain most of us can think of one for the first one, and it’d probably be the same name. At least one Older Face head has been sold to date, though, and it’s with Everhard; his version’s named Varvara, and is quite a pleasant lass to be around, it seems.
Sleeping Oksana would of course be the closed-eyes version of the Oksana head:

Another selling point is that her throat has a nearly 8in (20cm) depth, and Oleg says that the head has a way of creating artificial saliva to prevent damage to her teeth when she’s busy… providing service. I’m not sure how that’ll be accomplished exactly, but that’s just one more attribute to look forward to!
So if you’re keen on purchasing an Anatomical Doll, you’ll have a bit of a wait, but I’m certain it’ll be worth it. As soon as they open their doors for orders again, you’ll be able to read about it here, of course…

+ Internet webcomic cartoonist Mr R Stevens, the man behind Diesel Sweeties, has gotten a couple of mentions round here previously. Mainly as his jib is laser-cut! (Sounds pervy.) Click the image for the full comic:

+ And to close this segment, there’s this amusing and relevant DirecTV advert. I like how she’s like a sexy Muffin the Mule.

The only question I have would be: how did she manage to get that robe off, without it interfering with her wires? For that matter, how did she get it on? So unrealistic. She’s still cute, though, so we’ll give it a pass… Still not buying DirecTV, though.

Right; that’s half of all the new bits and bobs you need to know about. Fortunately, next part comes next week, as I’ve already written it! Mainly so I can get back to Bioshock: Burial at sea. Those Splicers aren’t going to shoot themselves, y’know! Unless I use Possession on them, that is

Sdtrk: ‘Lovecats’ by the Cure

私の最愛の妻しどれーに –

私の空に最も明るく、最も華麗な星に常に残る。 それを忘れてはいけない、なぜなら私が持つことができる最良パートナーである。

一緒にあることは私達のもっとたくさんのすばらしい年にここにある! 私は、しどれーちゃん愛する。

Sdtrk: ‘Structures’ by John Baker

No, I haven’t fallen in a hole somewhere, nor have Shi-chan, Lenka, and Mew-Mew tied me up and subdued me, ‘Faster pussycat! Kill! Kill!’-style. Although that’d be interesting. No, recently I’ve been reconciling my post-work free time, clocking in many hours of Earth defense force 2025 with goshou, SafeT, and Euchre, finishing Far cry 3: Blood dragon, and replying to Emails, cos I’ll be rolling that particular boulder up that mountain for eternity. O, and keeping up with this year’s World Cup! As of this writing, our favourites England, Japan, Italy, and the US are out, leaving a match with Germany going up against France. Those would be two of our other favourite teams, so having to choose between them was like choosing your favourite child, or pet, or pet child.

@Davecat Well, you know ma soeur @AnyaManikin is not in Germany. So there, I made it easy for you. 🙂

— Rachel Madison Wells (@mydollyvita) July 4, 2014

But you’ll be pleased as punk to know that I’m working on a new post! A Synthetiks-related one! And there’s so much info/effluvium in it that it’ll have to be split into two parts! So if you like your women rubbery, you’ll have those to look forward to. And who wouldn’t? Idiots, that’s who. Idiots.

For an interlude in the meantime, why not enjoy some vintage footage of some fashionable models amongst the amazing architecture of Sixties London, whilst a piece by John Baker of the BBC Radiophonic workshop plays in the background?

I’ll be back after the break. O, and looks like Germany won! *stands up and starts to sing ‘Deutschland über alles’, realises he doesn’t know the words, sits back down*

Sdtrk: ‘A A A A A A R’ by Two daughters

It may be too premature to tell at this juncture, but it seems that Deafening silence Plus is back to a state of DEFCON 5. What that means is that I’m employed again. *overenthusiastic thumbs up*
Frankly, the entire ordeal has been a fucking nightmare, and has probably taken about a year off my life with worry. I’ve never been keen on rollercoasters, and securing employment, let alone decent employment, was needlessly difficult. By the time things ended, I was working with six separate temp agencies, who couldn’t seem to get me anything in the field I really desired — data entry — and the best two or three of them could offer were positions in call centres, or in sales. As you’ll already know, I’d spent nearly twenty years in various call centres, and returning to one would be akin to taking a Vietnam veteran back through time to 1970, to spend some additional time ‘in the shit’; the best outcome for that person would more than likely be suicide.

Oftentimes either I wouldn’t be able to find something suitable, or there were instances where a place would want to set up an interview, which I’d attend, and whatever prospective employer would end up choosing someone else. One of my favourite bits was when I went to an interview and totally aced it, but ultimately, I was told I’d have to cut my ponytail off and not wear earrings in order to get the position. It’d be one thing if it was something I really wanted, but this was for a call centre that was paying $10 per hour. Even the temp agent who organised the interview was baffled at their Fifties-era dress code requirements, so what does that say?
No wait, I take that back: the best bit had to have been when a temp agent scheduled an interview; it went well, they told me I was hired and report to work in a week, but between then and the start date, the agent then informed me that the employer had a hiring freeze take place, and I wouldn’t be able to start when I was due to. That happened twice. With two different temp agencies, serving two different employers.

Thankfully, however, I’ve had a full-time job now since late April! I work for a place… wait for it… doing data entry! It’s Monday through Friday in the morning — actually, they have flex time, wherein I can come in as early as 7.30 or as late as 9am — and I’m in a room with eight other people, entering data and doing imaging for a national health-related company. It’s dead easy and stress-free, I can wear my headphones, and it’s five minutes away from a place that sells sushi. Plus, it’s the highest paying job I’ve ever had, so needless to say, it’s a pretty fantastic gig. The only downside to it is that it’s a 20-25min drive to work, and with insidious rush hour traffic, it’s nearly an hour home. Sure, I’m catching up on my podcasts, but ergh. I’m going to try my damnedest to start getting to work at 7.30am, so I can circumvent traffic both ways. That’s gonna take some training, as nearly seven months of being on the dole has eroded any concept of a ‘normal’ wake-up time. But it’s nice being at a stage of my life where I actually like what I do at work! The drive, however… not so much. It’s all for a good cause, though; i.e, me keeping a roof over my head.

Apart from freaking out due to lack of job prospects, what else have I been up to, you axe? Among other pursuits, I watched all of Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy, a passel of episodes of the fantastic QI on YouTube, put a sizeable dent in my ‘anime that needs to be watched’ list, as well as seeing ‘The Lego Movie‘, ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel‘, ‘The Raid 2: Berandal‘, and Gareth Edwards’ ‘Godzilla‘ in the theatres with the miscreants I normally hang out with, so there’s that. (Each one of those films is highly recommended, in case you were wondering).
Also I bought a copy of the reissue of Joy division’s debut EP ‘An ideal for living’ on Record Store Day! After all, I had my orders.

#RecordStoreDay is coming up! I told @Davecat that unless he found a copy of that Joy Division reissue, don't bother coming home 😐

— Sidore Kuroneko (@leahtype) April 13, 2014

Despite the fact that I have a modest vinyl collection, composed mostly of stereo demonstration records, we don’t really have space for a proper hi-fi here at Deafening silence Plus, so the EP is currently being displayed in our record frame in our flat’s ‘hallway’, as seen here.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Upon reflection, I should’ve bought two extra copies, now that I see people on eBay flogging them from $40 – $60 apiece…

And the other major event was that my third Synthetik flatmate, Muriel Noonan, arrived home on 31 March! She’s from Coventry, used to work in a library, and is made by Textile Doll, the company from Latvia that I’ve mentioned a handful of times on ‘Shouting etc etc’. Expect a full review on her when I manage to get my post-work time sorted, but she likes it here, which is good, as we like having her here!

So that’s pretty much what’s been up with what’s goin’ down / In every city, in ev-er-y town. As I’m fond of saying, I have to get the barrels up to speed before I’m posting on what passes for a regular basis round here, but now that I’m no longer freaking out every other day for fear that I’ll have to move back in with my father for the second time, I should be posting again again! ‘Woo’, with an additional ‘Yay’

Sdtrk: ‘Wow’ by Kate Bush

This post would be about a friend of mine and a fellow iDollator who you may have seen a number of times on ‘Shouting etc etc’ over the years; his name is Rob — online he used the pseudonym PBShelley — and his Synthetik partner was a RealDoll named Lily Godwin. Back on 30 March, he passed away quite unexpectedly, and I’d written this in a thread on Our Doll Community, an iDollator forum we’re members of. I’d held off on publishing it here, but reconsidered, as he would’ve turned 62 today.

Both Euchre and Ceej let me know what was going on via phone call and Email, respectively. That’s… that’s a mess.

I’d known Rob for almost a decade, and he always struck me as the quintessential artist/writer type — basically working on their craft to a single laser focus, and ignoring everything else. From the time I first met him and gorgeous Lily, he always spoke of Unbound, the story he had been working on for years, long before joining the iDollator community. It was really heartwarming to hear that he had finished it, cos working on a tale that extensive takes a lot of effort, and it was just great to see that he’d accomplished what he’d set out to do with it.

The problem was was when he had to move from his house in Washington state back to reduced accomodations in San Francisco, during the tail end of finishing his book. His flatmates weren’t as empathetic as they should’ve been, particularly when he couldn’t secure a supplemental income. From the Emails he’d sent me, I think a large part of his health deteriorating was due to stress from the people he lived with. One’s home should be a place to get away from the terrors of day-to-day living, and that wasn’t the case with Rob’s so-called friends.

When he told me Z-Dr was gracious enough to let him move in, that was fantastic news. He’d had a couple of burgeoning health issues develop before getting the move sorted, but he’d be able to relax, recharge his batteries, and hang out with a fellow iDollator besides. I also thought it’d be awesome, as I was fortunate enough to hang out with him in San Francisco in 2012, and was hoping to see him again this Summer for DolLApalooza 2014. Then back in mid-March, Rob let me know that he’d been diagnosed with cancer. He’d gotten down about it, understandably, but he didn’t let it keep him down. If his spirits were flagging, he didn’t want to bring everyone else down by going on about his health. He had correspondence and multiple anime shows that he had to catch up on, after all! Unfortunately, it seems that cancer doesn’t give a shit about what we as people have to do with our lives.

Saying that Rob was a kind, creative, cheerful, and unique person is one of those tip-of-the-iceberg descriptions. For those of us who were fortunate to have known him, it’s going to be strange not being able to hear from him again. However, he’ll be able to spend time with the spirit of Lily Godwin, his Doll and muse for Unbound, as much as he likes

image © 2004, by Elena Dorfman