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Professor STEVE BENFORD's Outputs (10)

Robots in Pain, Humans in Play: Soma as a Qualitative Method for Investigating Intelligent Human-Robot Configurations (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Chamberlain, A., Ngo, V., McGarry, G., Kucukyilmaz, A., Benford, S., & Higgins, A. (2025, February). Robots in Pain, Humans in Play: Soma as a Qualitative Method for Investigating Intelligent Human-Robot Configurations. Presented at Designing for Bodies: Practices, Imaginaries and Discourses, University of Southern Denmark, Kolding

In this piece we start to explore the ways in which we somatise our interaction with robots as a symbiotic system - both as human and robot, and as human-robot. We also consider the ways that we might want to take our physical nature (existence), for... Read More about Robots in Pain, Humans in Play: Soma as a Qualitative Method for Investigating Intelligent Human-Robot Configurations.

Producing Liveness: The Trials of Moving Folk Clubs Online During the Global Pandemic (2021)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Benford, S., Mansfield, P., & Spence, J. (2021, May). Producing Liveness: The Trials of Moving Folk Clubs Online During the Global Pandemic. Presented at CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Yokohama Japan

The global pandemic has driven musicians online. We report an ethnographic account of how two traditional folk clubs with little previous interest in digital platforms transitioned to online experiences. They followed very different approaches: one a... Read More about Producing Liveness: The Trials of Moving Folk Clubs Online During the Global Pandemic.

A framework for differentiation in composed digital-physical products (2020)
Journal Article
Baumers, M., Ashcroft, I., Benford, S., Flintham, M., Koleva, B., Tóth, Z., & Winklhofer, H. (2020). A framework for differentiation in composed digital-physical products. International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems, 13(4), 286-298. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJMMS.2020.112351

Product-service systems (PSS) composed of physical products and digital services are emerging as an important new product category. In this paper we suggest that the established metaphor of 'layering' is insufficient to capture the diverse ways in wh... Read More about A framework for differentiation in composed digital-physical products.

Contesting control: journeys through surrender, self-awareness and looseness of control in embodied interaction (2020)
Journal Article
Benford, S., Ramchurn, R., Marshall, J., Wilson, M. L., Pike, M., Martindale, S., Hazzard, A., Greenhalgh, C., Kallionpää, M., Tennent, P., & Walker, B. (2021). Contesting control: journeys through surrender, self-awareness and looseness of control in embodied interaction. Human-Computer Interaction, 36(5-6), 361-389. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2020.1754214

As Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) engages with technologies that sense and actuate the body, there is a need to reconsider the human bodily experience. We present three case studies that each involve different forms of bodily experience: a breath-c... Read More about Contesting control: journeys through surrender, self-awareness and looseness of control in embodied interaction.

Designing Hybrid Gifts (2020)
Journal Article
Koleva, B., Spence, J., Benford, S., Kwon, H., Schnädelbach, H., Thorn, E., Preston, W., Hazzard, A., Greenhalgh, C., Adams, M., Row Farr, J., Tandavanitj, N., Angus, A., & Lane, G. (2020). Designing Hybrid Gifts. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 27(5), 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1145/3398193

Hybrid gifting combines physical artefacts and experiences with digital interactivity to generate new kinds of gifts. Our review details how gifting is a complex social phenomenon and how digital gifting is less engaging than physical gifting for bot... Read More about Designing Hybrid Gifts.

From sharing to gifting: A web app for deepening engagement (2020)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Adams, M., Spence, J., Clark, S., Farr, J. R., Benford, S., & Tandavanitj, N. (2020, July). From sharing to gifting: A web app for deepening engagement. Presented at EVA London 2020, London, UK

Visitors currently use social media to share their experiences in museums, but these interactions are often short, quick and superficial. Is it possible to transform the impulse to share into an act of generosity, deepening engagement with museum col... Read More about From sharing to gifting: A web app for deepening engagement.

VRtefacts: Performative Substitutional Reality with Museum Objects (2020)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Spence, J., Darzentas, D. P., Huang, Y., Cameron, H. R., Beestin, E., & Benford, S. (2020, July). VRtefacts: Performative Substitutional Reality with Museum Objects. Presented at DIS '20: Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2020, Eindhoven Netherlands

We explore how a combination of manipulations and transitions can extend Substitutional Reality to create a highly personal Virtual Reality experience. Our design aimed to meet two challenges faced by museums: the limitations of object handling and t... Read More about VRtefacts: Performative Substitutional Reality with Museum Objects.

Thresholds: Embedding Virtual Reality in the Museum (2020)
Journal Article
Tennent, P., Martindale, S., Benford, S., Darzentas, D., Brundell, P., & Collishaw, M. (2020). Thresholds: Embedding Virtual Reality in the Museum. Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, 13(2), Article 12. https://doi.org/10.1145/3369394

We examine the experience of Thresholds, a virtual reality (VR) recreation of the world's first photographic exhibition, which has toured to multiple museums. Following the method of performance-led research in the wild, we provide an account of the... Read More about Thresholds: Embedding Virtual Reality in the Museum.

Discomfort—the dark side of fun (2018)
Book Chapter
Benford, S., Greenhalgh, C., Giannachi, G., Walker, B., Marshall, J., Tennent, P., & Rodden, T. (2018). Discomfort—the dark side of fun. In M. Blythe, & A. Monk (Eds.), Funology 2: from usability to enjoyment (209-224). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68213-6_13

For many of us, the notion of ‘fun’ conjures up visions of experiences that are amusing, pleasant, entertaining, playful—perhaps even frivolous. Rides, games, shows and perhaps even the experience of visiting an art gallery can embody these senses of... Read More about Discomfort—the dark side of fun.