Yulia Frumer
Biographic Data
| ID | 1014203 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Yulia Frumer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Yulia |
| FAMILY NAME | Frumer |
| SIGNATURE | FRUMER Y |
| AFFILIATIONS | Johns Hopkins University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7346-2992 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Feeling Machines
The Politics of Mise-en-Scène Technologies
Knowing Manchuria
Reviewed by: Knowing Manchuria: Environments, the Senses, and Natural Knowledge on an Asian Borderland by Ruth Rogaski Yulia Frumer Ruth Rogaski. Knowing Manchuria: Environments, the Senses, and Natural Knowledge on an Asian Borderland. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022. viii + 454 pp. Ill. $45.00 (978-0-226-80965-6). Knowing Manchuria is a journey into a mysterious frontier—lands bounded by mighty rivers, vanishing mountains, and delica…
Manufacturing hands
This article argues that automation engineering in 1960s Japan was rooted in colonial attitudes towards human labour, which were tacitly present in Japan even decades after its defeat in World War II. I make this argument by examining the development of Japan’s first modern robot, a three-fingered mechanical hand designed by Tokyo University graduate student Yamashita Tadashi in 1963. Exploring Yamashita’s methods, the data he relied on, and the …
Into the Field
Reviewed by: Into the Field: Human Scientists of Transwar Japan by Miriam Kingsberg Kadia Yulia Frumer (bio) Into the Field: Human Scientists of Transwar Japan. By Miriam Kingsberg Kadia. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2020. xiv, 344 pages. $90.00, cloth; $30.00, paper; $26.49, E-book. It is no secret that one's judgment of others betrays an underlying self-reflection. The notion of "the Other" contains an implicit comparison with "the Self…
Rise of the Self-Replicators
Reviewed by: Rise of the Self-Replicators: Early Visions of Machines, AI and Robots That Can Reproduce and Evolve by Tim Taylor and Alan Dorin Yulia Frumer (bio) Rise of the Self-Replicators: Early Visions of Machines, AI and Robots That Can Reproduce and Evolve By Tim Taylor and Alan Dorin. Cham: Springer, 2020. Pp. 121. The past two decades have seen a flurry of activity in the Artificial Life, or ALife, community, where data analysts, bio-engi…
In Memoriam
forerunner in the history of technology in Asia, friend, colleague, and scholar.His life and career cut short has left an empty space in the heart of a network of scholars who have known and benefited from his quiet curiosity
Imperialism and Profit in the Guise of Benevolence
Imperialism and Profit in the Guise of BenevolenceMizuno, Moore, and DiMoia, eds., Engineering Asia Yulia Frumer (bio) There is an unchallenged myth about the postwar Japanese economic recovery. According to the myth, after the end of WWII Japan cut ties with its imperial past and, as Aaron Moore put it in his chapter, “reinvented itself as a democratic, peaceful nation, dedicated to high-speed economic growth” (p. 85). In this narrative, the eco…
What Is and Isn't in a Name
Although I remain sympathetic to the narrative behind the notion of “History of Knowledge,” I argue against redrawing the disciplinary boundaries around “knowledge,” as opposed to retaining the term “science.” This is not because I think there is no place for a “history of knowledge,” and not because I am concerned that such a redrawing of disciplinary boundaries would open the floodgates of “anything goes.” Rather, I am doubtful that problems of…
Kyoto and the heavens
Why did scholars in mid-nineteenth century Japan assume that the prime meridian should run through Kyoto – positioning the city not only as the center of Japan but also of the entire world
Cognition and emotions in Japanese humanoid robotics
From the beginning of the twentieth century, Japanese roboticists have observed specific features in the physical designs of humanoid robots that cause users to react with either fear or affection. Analyzing the sources of these reactions, robotics egineers eliminated from robots those features that might trigger negative associations, and instead embedded their designs with cues to norms, theories, and cultural references valued by their society…
Japanese Reverse Compasses
Argument An unusual compass, on which east and west are reversed, provides insight into the dynamics guiding our understanding of artifacts. By examining how such compasses were used in Tokugawa Japan (1600–1868), the benefits they brought, and how users knew how to read them, this article uncovers the cognitive factors that shape our interaction with technology. Building on the methodological approach of the distributed cognition theory, the art…
Translating Words, Building Worlds
Translations between languages that are grammatically and culturally distant reveal that translated texts are not the source but, rather, the result of an already ongoing process of conceptual transformation. Looking at the processes behind early nineteenth-century Japanese translations of Dutch works on barometers and thermometers, this essay argues that a translator’s task is first and foremost to construct a conceptual world that makes space f…
The Global Transformation of Time
Reviewed by: The Global Transformation of Time: 1870–1950 by Vanessa Ogle Yulia Frumer (bio) The Global Transformation of Time: 1870–1950. By Vanessa Ogle. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015. Pp. 288. $39.95. What were the forces that drove the globalization of time? Vanessa Ogle shows that, although the initial idea of creating one universal system of time had already emerged by the 1870s, it was not fully implemented until the 1950s.…
Translating Time
The act of glancing at a clock to learn the time might seem quick and effortless. Yet for the early-nineteenth-century Japanese, there was nothing obvious about how to read the dial of a European clock. This article explores the ways that Japanese users learned to decipher a technological interface that not only looked significantly different from the ones with which they were familiar, but often contradicted their conventional common sense. The …
What Is and Isn't in a Name
Although I remain sympathetic to the narrative behind the notion of “History of Knowledge,” I argue against redrawing the disciplinary boundaries around “knowledge,” as opposed to retaining the term “science.” This is not because I think there is no place for a “history of knowledge,” and not because I am concerned that such a redrawing of disciplinary boundaries would open the floodgates of “anything goes.” Rather, I am doubtful that problems of…
Translating Words, Building Worlds
Translations between languages that are grammatically and culturally distant reveal that translated texts are not the source but, rather, the result of an already ongoing process of conceptual transformation. Looking at the processes behind early nineteenth-century Japanese translations of Dutch works on barometers and thermometers, this essay argues that a translator’s task is first and foremost to construct a conceptual world that makes space f…
Translating Time
The act of glancing at a clock to learn the time might seem quick and effortless. Yet for the early-nineteenth-century Japanese, there was nothing obvious about how to read the dial of a European clock. This article explores the ways that Japanese users learned to decipher a technological interface that not only looked significantly different from the ones with which they were familiar, but often contradicted their conventional common sense. The …
Translating Time
The act of glancing at a clock to learn the time might seem quick and effortless. Yet for the early-nineteenth-century Japanese, there was nothing obvious about how to read the dial of a European clock. This article explores the ways that Japanese users learned to decipher a technological interface that not only looked significantly different from the ones with which they were familiar, but often contradicted their conventional common sense. The …
The Global Transformation of Time
Reviewed by: The Global Transformation of Time: 1870–1950 by Vanessa Ogle Yulia Frumer (bio) The Global Transformation of Time: 1870–1950. By Vanessa Ogle. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015. Pp. 288. $39.95. What were the forces that drove the globalization of time? Vanessa Ogle shows that, although the initial idea of creating one universal system of time had already emerged by the 1870s, it was not fully implemented until the 1950s.…
Cognition and emotions in Japanese humanoid robotics
From the beginning of the twentieth century, Japanese roboticists have observed specific features in the physical designs of humanoid robots that cause users to react with either fear or affection. Analyzing the sources of these reactions, robotics egineers eliminated from robots those features that might trigger negative associations, and instead embedded their designs with cues to norms, theories, and cultural references valued by their society…
Japanese Reverse Compasses
Argument An unusual compass, on which east and west are reversed, provides insight into the dynamics guiding our understanding of artifacts. By examining how such compasses were used in Tokugawa Japan (1600–1868), the benefits they brought, and how users knew how to read them, this article uncovers the cognitive factors that shape our interaction with technology. Building on the methodological approach of the distributed cognition theory, the art…
Translating Words, Building Worlds
Translations between languages that are grammatically and culturally distant reveal that translated texts are not the source but, rather, the result of an already ongoing process of conceptual transformation. Looking at the processes behind early nineteenth-century Japanese translations of Dutch works on barometers and thermometers, this essay argues that a translator’s task is first and foremost to construct a conceptual world that makes space f…
What Is and Isn't in a Name
Although I remain sympathetic to the narrative behind the notion of “History of Knowledge,” I argue against redrawing the disciplinary boundaries around “knowledge,” as opposed to retaining the term “science.” This is not because I think there is no place for a “history of knowledge,” and not because I am concerned that such a redrawing of disciplinary boundaries would open the floodgates of “anything goes.” Rather, I am doubtful that problems of…
Kyoto and the heavens
Why did scholars in mid-nineteenth century Japan assume that the prime meridian should run through Kyoto – positioning the city not only as the center of Japan but also of the entire world
In Memoriam
forerunner in the history of technology in Asia, friend, colleague, and scholar.His life and career cut short has left an empty space in the heart of a network of scholars who have known and benefited from his quiet curiosity
Imperialism and Profit in the Guise of Benevolence
Imperialism and Profit in the Guise of BenevolenceMizuno, Moore, and DiMoia, eds., Engineering Asia Yulia Frumer (bio) There is an unchallenged myth about the postwar Japanese economic recovery. According to the myth, after the end of WWII Japan cut ties with its imperial past and, as Aaron Moore put it in his chapter, “reinvented itself as a democratic, peaceful nation, dedicated to high-speed economic growth” (p. 85). In this narrative, the eco…
Into the Field
Reviewed by: Into the Field: Human Scientists of Transwar Japan by Miriam Kingsberg Kadia Yulia Frumer (bio) Into the Field: Human Scientists of Transwar Japan. By Miriam Kingsberg Kadia. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2020. xiv, 344 pages. $90.00, cloth; $30.00, paper; $26.49, E-book. It is no secret that one's judgment of others betrays an underlying self-reflection. The notion of "the Other" contains an implicit comparison with "the Self…
Rise of the Self-Replicators
Reviewed by: Rise of the Self-Replicators: Early Visions of Machines, AI and Robots That Can Reproduce and Evolve by Tim Taylor and Alan Dorin Yulia Frumer (bio) Rise of the Self-Replicators: Early Visions of Machines, AI and Robots That Can Reproduce and Evolve By Tim Taylor and Alan Dorin. Cham: Springer, 2020. Pp. 121. The past two decades have seen a flurry of activity in the Artificial Life, or ALife, community, where data analysts, bio-engi…
Manufacturing hands
This article argues that automation engineering in 1960s Japan was rooted in colonial attitudes towards human labour, which were tacitly present in Japan even decades after its defeat in World War II. I make this argument by examining the development of Japan’s first modern robot, a three-fingered mechanical hand designed by Tokyo University graduate student Yamashita Tadashi in 1963. Exploring Yamashita’s methods, the data he relied on, and the …
Knowing Manchuria
Reviewed by: Knowing Manchuria: Environments, the Senses, and Natural Knowledge on an Asian Borderland by Ruth Rogaski Yulia Frumer Ruth Rogaski. Knowing Manchuria: Environments, the Senses, and Natural Knowledge on an Asian Borderland. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022. viii + 454 pp. Ill. $45.00 (978-0-226-80965-6). Knowing Manchuria is a journey into a mysterious frontier—lands bounded by mighty rivers, vanishing mountains, and delica…
The Politics of Mise-en-Scène Technologies
Feeling Machines
Political science (8 works) · History (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis (5 works) · History of Science and Medicine (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Artificial Intelligence (4 works) · Chinese history and philosophy (4 works)