Technocultural research into robotics

Edited by Chris Chesher and Justine Humphry

  • The Age of the Screen-Faced Robot

    The Age of the Screen-Faced Robot

    26 January 2025 Have you noticed how humanoid robots are starting to look like they’ve stepped off the pages of a slick sci-fi graphic novel? The new wave of mechanical beings – think Tesla’s Optimus, Figure 01, and others – sport glossy, obsidian face-plates that reflect studio lights with a futuristic sheen. We’ve arrived at a moment…

  • Back to RobotWorld Seoul (2024): Then & Now

    Back to RobotWorld Seoul (2024): Then & Now

    October 2023 I first attended RobotWorld in Seoul back in 2010, when the expo was a relatively modest affair, with only a handful of impressive demonstrations amid clunky prototypes and rows of servo-motor vendors. Returning in 2024, I expected to be overwhelmed by sleek humanoids and fully autonomous service droids—and while there were definite signs of progress,…

  • Service through the eyes of a robot: Robophilosophy 2024 presentation

    Service through the eyes of a robot: Robophilosophy 2024 presentation

    Service – from the robot‘s perspective In this paper, (video below), Chris Chesher and Justine Humphry ask: What does it mean to perform service work as a robot? This question might seem like a thought experiment straight out of a science fiction novel, but it was the starting point for our recent research at the…

  • Reflections on Robophilosophy 2024

    Robophilosophy in Aarhus was even better than I expected. Lots of good papers and many nice people working with humanities and social sciences approaches to robots. This theatre performance, called Replik.a, by a Stuttgart troupe, was a highlight. I really was not sure whether the second actor was a human or a robot until I…

  • From novelty to normal: Dining with robot waiters across Kuala Lumpur

    From novelty to normal: Dining with robot waiters across Kuala Lumpur

    Introduction It’s July 2023, and I’m in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with my wife, Cathy, on a mission to explore a trend that has quietly taken root in the city’s dining scene: robot waiters. Once a futuristic novelty popping up in social media feeds, these mechanical servers have begun to settle into the everyday rhythms of…

  • Pepper Parlor

    Pepper Parlor

    Imagine eating morning tea surrounded by social robots. Pepper Parlor is a concept restaurant that offers just that experience.

  • Eye machines: Robot eye, vision and gaze article published

    Eye machines: Robot eye, vision and gaze article published

    The International Journal of Social Robotics has published the article Fiona Andreallo and I wrote on the three dimensions of eye machines: the eye itself, the operation of vision, and the intersubjective significance of the gaze.

  • Philosopher of media and technology, Mark Coeckelbergh visits Sydney

    Philosopher of media and technology, Mark Coeckelbergh visits Sydney

    Mark Coeckelbergh, Professor of Media and Technology at the University of Vienna visited Sydney in November/December 2019. He presented at a Sydney Ideas event ‘Wild AI and tame humans’ on November 18, and led two research workshops.

  • Talking about the robot gaze

    Talking about the robot gaze

    How does it feel when a robot looks you in the eye? In July Michael Garbutt and I recorded a conversation on the robot gaze. The possibility of a robot gaze exposes the ambiguity over the status of the robot as a being or a thing.