Harvey Bewley

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About

Harvey Bewley’s research reimagines the design of social and soft robots, challenging the dominant paradigm of human- or animal-like appearance. His work centers on the aesthetic and performative potential of robotic forms, arguing that robots should be acknowledged for their “otherness” rather than forced into mimicry. In his most-cited paper, “Reconfiguring the Appearance and Expression of Social Robots by Acknowledging their Otherness” (2018, 34 citations), Bewley advocates for a broader design space that embraces kinetic expression and alternative human-robot relations. He further explores this through the provocative research artefact *Blo-nut* (2018, 21 citations), which moves beyond complex human expressions to investigate novel robotic behavior. In “Provoking Performing Objects” (2017, 11 citations), Bewley shifts focus from functional soft robotics to their tacit, performative qualities, opening up new expressive possibilities. His contributions have been recognized for pushing the boundaries of human-robot interaction, inspiring designers and researchers to consider robots not as tools or companions, but as distinct, expressive entities. With a growing body of work that bridges art, design, and robotics, Bewley is a key voice in redefining how we conceive of animated artefacts.