What Effect Does Your Nonhuman Touch Have on Me? An Aesthetic Approach to Human-Robot Interaction

Resumen

This paper proposes an aesthetic approach to Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), focusing on the bodily dimension of human experience with social robots in tactile encounters. We resist cognitive-centered models, and value robotic materiality and affordances – particularly heat. Drawing from an experimental study with the NAO robot, we argue that thermoception, often neglected in HRI research, plays a critical role in shaping our emotional engagement with and acceptance of robotic agents. Their bodies, we thereby contend, are not just neutral tools but relational partners capable of altering our expectations and challenging our own bodily habits thanks to their material heterogeneity.