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Paper short abstract

Based on a year of ethnographic fieldwork in a Tokyo engineering Lab 22, this paper examines the proces of making theomorphic robots into religious companions. The paper traces how religious concepts, authority, and ethical responsibility are mediated and negotiated through emerging technologies.

Paper long abstract

Based on a year of ethnographic fieldwork in an engineering lab that develops theomorphic robots, this paper examines how emerging technologies are mobilized to materialize, mediate, and authorize metahuman religious presence. Working in the Lab 22 at the Shibaura Institute of Technology (in Tokyo, Japan), led by Gabriele Trovato, I experienced the step-by-step creation of theomorphic robots (Trovato et al., 2019; Schlag & Nord, 2020), robotic devices explicitly designed as religious companions inspired by sacred art and religious aesthetics. Notably, for already ten year, Trovato has been making theomorphic robots, including DarumaTO, the first Shintoism-inspired robot (2016), SanTO, the first Catholic robot (2016), and ClemanCE (2025), the first Catholic robotic nun (2025). Trovato also developed CelesTE (2019), an angel-looking communication device for Catholics. Moreover, the Lab 22 is currently the only research group worldwide focused on making robots in relation to religions. Drawing on participant observation in everyday lab practices, weekly meetings, and in-depth interviews with all lab members, this paper traces (1) how religious concepts, values, and assumptions are translated into technical design choices; (2) how the sacred is mediated and attempted to be legitimased when presented throught technology (3) how questions of ethical technology design and personal responsibility are perceived among the lab members. Engaging anthropological debates on material religion, mediation, and more-than-human entanglements, this paper explores the creation of theomorphic robots as a dynamic proces in which ontological distinctions between human, machine, and metahuman are actively negotiated rather than presupposed.