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Talk: CryoFellow Dr. Floramante SJ Ponce on “Between Aesthetic and Anesthetic – The Affective Consequences of Air Conditioning for Young Laotian Scammers” (Essen, Germany & online)

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Lecture Talk: CryoFellow Dr. Floramante SJ Ponce on “Between Aesthetic and Anesthetic – The Affective Consequences of Air Conditioning for Young Laotian Scammers” (Essen, Germany & online)

Since 2022, the prevalence of Chinese-financed scam centers in Southeast Asia has emerged as a significant issue, as they have swindled many people and perpetrated human trafficking. Scam compounds are extremely difficult to access; relatively few scholars and investigative journalists have managed to explore this new global phenomenon by interviewing victims from China and other Asian and African countries who were forced to work as scammers and experienced physical and sexual abuse. Not all scammers have been coerced, however. Many Southeast Asian youngsters, including young Laotians, have willingly entered scam compounds. Their narratives, particularly how they have submitted and adapted to the fraudulent work regime, are equally crucial to the analysis of recent scam operations. Drawing on life histories of 33 young Laotian scammers I interviewed and interacted with between 2022 and 2025, I examine how these willing scammers are assisted by air conditioners to embrace their work’s sociotechnical milieu. Consequently, the air conditioners’ artificial cooling affects digital scam workers’ reproductive spheres aesthetically and anesthetically. To better understand the air conditioner’s affective mechanisms, I argue that it is necessary to attend not only to what the scammers’ bodies perceive and feel while working and living in air-conditioned spaces (aesthetic), but also to what senses and affective states are suppressed or diminished by this cooling technology (anesthetic).

This talk is part of the colloquium at Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI) and can be joined in person or online starting 10:30 am. More information on registration can be found here.

Event

  • June 2026

    • Past Event Lecture Talk: CryoFellow Dr. Floramante SJ Ponce on "Between Aesthetic and Anesthetic - The Affective Consequences of Air Conditioning for Young Laotian Scammers" (Essen, Germany & online)

      Talk at colloquium at Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI) Since 2022, the prevalence of Chinese-financed scam centers in Southeast Asia has emerged as a significant issue, as they have swindled many people and perpetrated human trafficking. Scam compounds are extremely difficult to access; relatively few scholars and investigative journalists have managed to explore this new global phenomenon by interviewing victims from China and other Asian and African countries who were forced to work as scammers and experienced physical and sexual abuse. Not all scammers have been coerced, however. Many Southeast Asian youngsters, including young Laotians, have willingly entered scam compounds. Their narratives, particularly how they have submitted and adapted to the fraudulent work regime, are equally crucial to the analysis of recent scam operations. Drawing on life histories of 33 young Laotian scammers I interviewed and interacted with between 2022 and 2025, I examine how these willing scammers are assisted by air conditioners to embrace their work’s sociotechnical milieu. Consequently, the air conditioners’ artificial cooling affects digital scam workers’ reproductive spheres aesthetically and anesthetically. To better understand the air conditioner’s affective mechanisms, I argue that it is necessary to attend not only to what the scammers’ bodies perceive and feel while working and living in air-conditioned spaces (aesthetic), but also to what senses and affective states are suppressed or diminished by this cooling technology (anesthetic).

      Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI) Room 106 Goethestr. 31 45128 Essen