Technocultural research into robotics

Edited by Chris Chesher and Justine Humphry

  • 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.

  • Beyond anthropomorphism symposium

    Beyond anthropomorphism symposium

    I am helping to organise a symposium with the Sydney Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems called ‘Beyond Anthropomorphism: Rethinking Human-Machine Relations in Robotics and AI’ on June 11 and 12, 2019.

  • Toy robots on YouTube: Consumption and peer production at the robotic moment

    Toy robots on YouTube: Consumption and peer production at the robotic moment

    NEW PUBLICATION: Toy robots on YouTube in Convergence. Robots are increasingly prominent in the popular imagination, partly through people playing with toys and using social media. This article examines a selection of user-created YouTube videos in different genres that reveal how people experiment with toy robots such as the Furby.

  • Robowars at Vivid

    Robowars at Vivid

    Robowars competitors show off their jumping talents.

  • Mining robotics and media change

    Mining robotics and media change

    Here’s a link to an article I wrote last year on the transformations in mining practices associated with digital technologies. In it I argue that changes even in such a large scale material practice can be considered as media changes.

  • Autonomous Robots compete to beat the field

    Autonomous Robots compete to beat the field

    The meaning of individual robots is put into relief when they face competition. This week I watched the National Instruments (NI) Autonomous Robotics Competition finals at Macquarie University as 27 teams placed their robots onto the playing field in the Lotus Theatre.

  • Google’s robot challenge

    Google’s robot challenge

    Google recently acquired eight high profile start-up robotics companies, providing strong evidence of a strategy to create breakthrough applications for robotics over the next decade. This strategy is most likely to concentrate on manufacturing and logistics.

  • Robotronica

    Robotronica

    An event such as Robotronica, in Brisbane on the 18th of August 2013, reveals how popular robots are with the general public. QUT’s new Science and Engineering Centre was packed with curious families, shuffling from exhibition to demonstration.