I’m Eleanor Sandry. Welcome to my winding path of thinking and posting at Zigzaggery.
I was a Senior Lecturer in Digital and Social Media / Internet Studies at Curtin University. Alongside my teaching, where I could find time, I was a researcher in human-machine communication (HMC) and, to an extent, I’m planning to continue that research. I’m mainly interested in non-humanoid robots, which I most often find in creative art and fictional contexts.
For me, robots have the most potential to be interesting and valuable in human lives if they are explicitly different from humans, with nonhumanlike ways to act in and on the world.
I’m aware though that I might not do much research or writing about robots for a while, other than the two pieces of writing to which I’m already committed (an article and a book chapter). I need a break. You’ll probably find me writing about my garden, surroundings, keeping my houseplants alive, sewing, cooking, running, windsurfing and/or wingfoiling (maybe… if I’m brave) and golf (sorry, but I’m a bit obsessed with the physical and mental challenge of this ridiculous game) in this space.
Find me posting on similar topics in short form:
Professional linking (but only very intermittently):
Images of robots:
Email for research matters (because I am still an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow):
- e.sandry[at]curtin.edu.au
Email for anything else:
- elsan[at]cantab.net
My research
This list of my research will gradually be linked to the research summaries in the Collections area of this site. I’ll also fix up the links to the published versions, but some of these are paywalled (the scourge of academic publishing). If you find any issues with links, just email me.
If there is any research below that you would like to read, please email me using either address above. I have the published versions of all my writing available to send to interested readers and normally respond withing around 48 hours (unless I am travelling).
Book
Sandry, E. (2015). Robots and Communication. Pivot Series. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, UK. (Full details and some excerpts from Springer. Also available for purchase from online book sellers including Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, but remember you can just email me if you’re interested in reading part or all of this.)
Book Chapters
Sandry E. (2024). Anthropomorphism and its Discontents. Handbook on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. Ed. David Gunkel. Edward Elgar Publishing. (Email me for a copy)
Sandry, E. (2023). HMC and Theories of Human-Technology Relations. The SAGE Handbook of Human-Machine Communication. Eds. Andrea L. Guzman, Rhonda McEwen & Steve Jones. Sage. (Free to read or email me for a copy)
Sandry, E. (2019). Interdependence in collaboration with robots. Routledge Companion to Disability and Media. Eds. Katie Ellis, Beth Haller & Gerard Goggin. Routledge: New York. (Email me for a copy)
Sandry, E. (2018). Taking social machines beyond the ideal humanlike other. A Networked Self: Human Augmentics, Artificial Intelligence, Sentience. Ed. Zizi Papacharissi. Routledge: New York. (Email me for a copy)
Sandry, E. (2018). Aliveness and the off-switch in human-robot relations. Human-Machine Communication. Ed. Andrea Guzmann. Peter Lang: New York. (Email me for a copy)
Sandry, E. (2016). The Potential of Otherness in Robotic Art. Robotics and Art – Exploring an Unlikely Symbiosis. Eds. Damith Herath, Christian Kroos, and Stelarc. Springer: Singapore. (Email me for a copy)
Sandry, E. (2015). Rethinking Communication: Care Robots as Collaborative Assistants. Re-Orientation — Translingual Transcultural Transmedia. Eds. John Hartley and Weiguo Qu. Fudan University Press: Shanghai, China. (Email me for a copy)
Sandry, E. (2014). Same … yet Other: Interpersonal Communication across Alternate Worlds. The Multiple Worlds of Fringe. Eds. Sherry Ginn, Tanya R. Cochran, and Paul Zinder. McFarland: North Carolina. (Email me for a copy)
Journal Articles
Webster, L., Leaver, T., & Sandry, E. (2022). Transmedia storytelling during the COVID-19 pandemic: Marvel’s WandaVision and Zack Snyder’s Justice League. First Monday, 27(7). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v27i7.11784 (Open Access)
Sandry, E. (2022). Who or what is creative? Collaborating with machines to make visual art. Transformations, 36. http://www.transformationsjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Trans36_04_sandry.pdf (Open Access)
Sandry, E., Gomez, R. & Nakamura, K. (2021). Art, Design and Communication Theory in Creating the Communicative Social Robot ‘Haru’. Frontiers in Robotics and AI: The Art of Human-Robot Interaction, Creative Perspectives from Design and the Arts. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.577107 (Open Access)
Sandry, E. & Peaty, G. Joyful Encounters: Learning to Play Well with Machines. (2020). Cultural Science Journal, 12(1): 44–58. http://doi.org/10.5334/csci.137 (Open Access)
Sandry, E. (2018). Automation and human relations with the private vehicle: from automobiles to autonomous cars. Media International Australia 166(1): 11-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X17737644 (Subscription Required, so email me)
Sandry, E. (2017). Creative Collaborations with Machines. Philosophy & Technology, 30(3): 305–319. http://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-016-0240-4 (Subscription Required, so email me)
Sandry, E. (2015). Re-evaluating the form and communication of social robots: the benefits of collaborating with machinelike robots. International Journal of Social Robotics, 7(3): 335-346. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-014-0278-3 (Subscription Required, so email me)
Sandry, E. & Willson, M. (2014). Interruptions: reconsidering the immaterial in human engagements with technology. Transformations, 25. http://www.transformationsjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Sandry-Willson_Transformations25.pdf (Open Access)
Sandry, E. (2014). “Face to face” learning from others in Facebook groups. Digital Culture & Education 6(1): 1-12. https://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/volume-6-papers/face-to-face-learning-from-others-in-facebook-groups (Open Access)
Sandry, E. (2012). Dancing around the subject with robots: ethical communication as a “triple audiovisual reality”. PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communication 4(1): 79-90. (An extended version of the ANZCA paper shown below.) https://platformjmc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/v4i1_sandry.pdf (Open Access)
Refereed Conference Publications
Aylett M., Gomez, R., Sandry, E. & Sabanovic, S. (2023). Unsocial Robots: How Western Culture Dooms Consumer Social Robots to a Society of One. Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544549.3582751
Vasylkiv, Y., Ragel de la Torre, R., Chulani, J., Merino, L., Sandry, E., Brock, H., Nakamura, K., Irani, P. & Gomez, R. (2021). Design and Development of a Teleoperation System for Affective Tabletop Robot Haru. IEEE International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR), 10-13 November, 2021. IEEE. https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-030-90525-5_49
Vasylkiv, Y., Zhen, M., Li, G., Sandry, E., Brock, H., Nakamura, K., Irani, P., & Gomez, R. (2021). Automating Behavior Selection for Affective Telepresence Robot. IEEE International Conference on Robots and Automation (ICRA), 30 May-5 June 2021. IEEE.
Sandry, E. (2018). Encounter, Story and Dance: Human-Machine Communication and the Design of Human-Technology Interactions. Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference (OzCHI ’18), 4-6 December 2018. ACM. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3292147.3292220
Sandry, E. (2011). Dancing around the subject with robots: ethical communication as a “triple audiovisual reality”. Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA) 2011 Conference, “Communication on the edge: Shifting boundaries and identities”. Proceedings (see PLATFORM publication above for better version)
Sandry, E. (2008), Are workshops a valuable way to engage the future student? Evaluating workshops and tutorials in Women’s Studies. Proceedings of the 17th Annual Teaching and Learning Forum 2008, “Preparing for the graduate of 2015”.
Sandry, E. (2006). Positively speaking – actively listening: interdisciplinary reflections on lecturing as valuable in higher education. Proceedings of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) 2006 Conference, “Critical visions: thinking, learning and researching in higher education”.
About this site
I had a blog elsewhere for a long time, but with my move away from permanent academic employment I decided to develop a new site for a range of writing (not just about teaching and research work). My research still features here, and I’ll add other areas for anything work-related as and when needed. For now I’ll mostly be posting weeknotes and other writing, while gradually adding material to the Collections area documenting my published research.