Cultural Computing - How Can Technology Contribute the Spiritual Aspect of Our Communication?

The author is carrying out technology studies to explore and expand human emotions, sensibility, and consciousness by making innovative use of artistic creativity. We develop interfaces for experiencing and expressing the "essence of culture'' such as human feelings, ethnicity, and story. History has shown that human cultures have common and unique forms such as behavior and grammar. We suggest a computer model for that process and a method of interactive expression and experiencing cultural understanding using IT called "cultural computing". We particularly examine Japanese culture, although it is only a small subject of computing.