Professor STEVE BENFORD's Outputs (9)

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.

Augmenting musical instruments with digital identities (2024)
Journal Article
Benford, S., McGarry, G., Hazzard, A., Chamberlain, A., Gibson, R., & Avila, J. P. M. (2024). Augmenting musical instruments with digital identities. Journal of New Music Research, https://doi.org/10.1080/09298215.2024.2423613

We explore how augmenting musical instruments with digital identities can enhance their provenance, utility during creative practice, and personal meaning. A literature review reveals the importance of object identities in general and instrument iden... Read More about Augmenting musical instruments with digital identities.

How Artists Improvise and Provoke Robotics (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Benford, S., Garrett, R., Schneiders, E., Tennent, P., Chamberlain, A., Avila, J., Brundell, P., & Castle-Green, S. (2024, October). How Artists Improvise and Provoke Robotics. Poster presented at 16th International Conference on Social Robotics + AI (ICSR + AI) 2024, Odense, Denmark

We explore transdisciplinary collaborations between artists and roboticists across a portfolio of artworks. Brendan Walker's Bronco-matic was a breath controlled mechanical rodeo bull ride. Blast Theory's Cat Royale deployed a robot arm to play with... Read More about How Artists Improvise and Provoke Robotics.

Decoding AI in Contemporary Art: A Five-Trope Classification for Understanding and Categorisation (2024)
Journal Article
Salimbeni, G., Benford, S., Reeves, S., & Martindale, S. (2024). Decoding AI in Contemporary Art: A Five-Trope Classification for Understanding and Categorisation. Leonardo, 57(4), 415–421. https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_a_02546

The article presents a historical overview of the classification of contemporary artworks that either have utilized artificial intelligence as a tool in their creation or focus on AI as their central theme or subject matter. The authors analyze artwo... Read More about Decoding AI in Contemporary Art: A Five-Trope Classification for Understanding and Categorisation.

Designing Multispecies Worlds for Robots, Cats, and Humans (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Schneiders, E., Benford, S., Chamberlain, A., Mancini, C., Castle-Green, S., Ngo, V., Row Farr, J., Adams, M., Tandavanitj, N., & Fischer, J. (2024, May). Designing Multispecies Worlds for Robots, Cats, and Humans. Presented at CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’24), Honolulu, HI, USA

We reflect on the design of a multispecies world centred around a bespoke enclosure in which three cats and a robot arm coexist for six hours a day during a twelve-day installation as part of an artist-led project. In this paper, we present the proje... Read More about Designing Multispecies Worlds for Robots, Cats, and Humans.

Charting Ethical Tensions in Multispecies Technology Research through Beneficiary-Epistemology Space (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Benford, S. D., Mancini, C., Chamberlain, A., Schneiders, E., Castle-Green, S. D., Fischer, J. E., Kucukyilmaz, A., Salimbeni, G., Ngo, V. Z. H., Barnard, P., Adams, M., Tandavanitj, N., & Row Farr, J. (2024, May). Charting Ethical Tensions in Multispecies Technology Research through Beneficiary-Epistemology Space. Presented at CHI '24 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Hawaii, USA

While ethical challenges are widely discussed in HCI, far less is reported about the ethical processes that researchers routinely navigate. We reflect on a multispecies project that negotiated an especially complex ethical approval process. Cat Royal... Read More about Charting Ethical Tensions in Multispecies Technology Research through Beneficiary-Epistemology Space.

Insights Into Legacy: Issues of Handover from a Partner-Initiated Project (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Thorn, E., Spence, J., Koleva, B., & Benford, S. D. (2024, May). Insights Into Legacy: Issues of Handover from a Partner-Initiated Project. Presented at CHI '24: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Honolulu HI USA

We report on a six-year collaboration with a small community organisation to develop and deploy a permanent physical / digital locative media experience as part on an ongoing community regeneration project. We describe how this unfolded over four pha... Read More about Insights Into Legacy: Issues of Handover from a Partner-Initiated Project.

The Purr-suit of Happiness: A Tale of Three Kittens, Robots, Humans, Cats, and AI (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Schneiders, E., Benford, S., Row Farr, J., Tandavanitj, N., & Adams, M. (2024, March). The Purr-suit of Happiness: A Tale of Three Kittens, Robots, Humans, Cats, and AI. Presented at HRI '24: ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, Boulder CO USA

This paper showcases Cat Royale, an exploration of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on animal happiness situated at the intersection of Art, Computer Science, and Animal Welfare. We argue for the inclusion of non-human actors when designing... Read More about The Purr-suit of Happiness: A Tale of Three Kittens, Robots, Humans, Cats, and AI.

Cat Royale (2024)
Other
Schneiders, E., Benford, S., Tandavanitj, N., Adams, M., & Farr, J. R. (2024). Cat Royale

Would you let a robot care for your pet? Blast Theory’s Cat Royale explores the impact of AI on humans and animals. For 12 days, Ghostbuster, Pumpkin, and Clover played with a robot arm that offered them games, toys, and treats every few minutes. The... Read More about Cat Royale.