Wearable Computing for Art & Performance
A Workshop in Computer Movement Analysis and Intermedia Performance
September 3-6, 2009
When we study our movement, we become aware of the meaning it expresses within ourselves and between one another. Since its development in the early 20th century, Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) has been widely used to study movement, providing a vocabulary of body, effort, shape, and space that is shared across disciplines, from dance to theater, anthropology to athletics, psychology to public speaking.
Join us for a workshop led by somatic studies theorist and wearable computing artist Dr. Thecla Schiphorst (Simon Frasier University) that marries our attention to movement (explored through somatic principles including focus, attention and Laban Effort qualities) with computer sensors and mapping strategies. Workshop participants will be learning about designing for technology through somatic movement principles. Your movement defines your own state, and we will use our real time movement to explore movement qualities and spatial relationships with sensors connected through bodies, fabric and clothing. We will learn how movement qualities can be analyzed and recognized through computer machine learning, and use this to translate patterns of movement into improvised sound, text, music, and dance.
LOCATION - Orchestra Rehearsal Room (2nd Level), Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (500 S Goodwin, Urbana): all sessions
SESSION 1 - Thursday September 3, 2009; 7-9pm
Introduction: Movement + Body in Context
Introduction to Thecla Schiphorst and the workshop goals. Introduction to Somatic principles including sensing, attention and action and applying these to movement interaction with technology. Some features will include Laban Movement Principles (LMP) particularly effort qualities; exploring movement quality in relation to gestural recognition; exploring communicating movement quality in the context of performance; Introduction to sonification effects
SESSION 2 - Friday September 4, 2009; 5-7pm
Movement Quality + Sound
Continued exploration of basic movement qualities; How sensing physical sensing of movement quality can be used as expressive mapping through improvisation; Exploring a set of principles linking movement quality to sonification including: quality and Laban Effort recognition; various movement and sonification ‘mappings’. how movement can be the source of ‘training’ machine -learning software, and how we can use this in interactive performance. The primary focus is to link experiential properties of movement with potential for machine recognition of movement quality – applying Laban effort recognition
SESSION 3 - Saturday September 5, 2009; 11am-3pm
Movement Quality + Material
This session focuses on the application of movement to the material and expressive properties of Fabric for Costuming and Wearable Garments.
We add the use of movement through material and fabric by placing sensors on fabric, so that it can express movement through a performers motion through space. How can this affect movement qualities that can be recognized through sensing technology for stage performance. Exploring various movement and wearable scenarios with sound ‘mappings’ applied to the movement of fabric. Continued exploration of how movement of fabric can be used to ‘train’ machine-learning software.
Exploring expression in relationship to designing for performance interaction; refining LMP machine learning training sets, so that the trained software recognizes significant movement patterns
SESSION 4 - Sunday September 6, 2009; 11am-3pm
Movement, Fabric, Sound and Space
This final session explores the integration of body, material, sound and space. We incorporate the elements that bring together a theatrical space. How does this effect movement qualities that can be recognized through sensing technology for stage performance as a whole.
Synthesizing a body’s internal movement sensing, with an interactive movement sensing environment using technology and exploring an expressive range of applications.
REGISTER for this workshop
FREE and open to all members of the University and Champaign/Urbana communities. Attendance at all four sessions is requested, but auditors for individual sessions are welcome. Please wear comfortable clothing that you can move in.
Faculty Leader: Associate Professor and Music Director John Toenjes, Department of Dance
The sessions will be joined by Associate Professor Sara Hook and MFA Alumna Renata Shepard who are both LMA certified.
Sponsored by Frances P. Rohlen Visiting Artists Fund/College of Fine and Applied Arts, CAS George A. Miller Visiting Professors Fund, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Dance at Illinois, University of Illinois Campus Research Board, Institute for Advanced Computing Applications and Technologies/Creativity and Computing, and eDream
