The Simulation of Human Movement by Computer

This paper is concerned with a software simulation of movement of the human body. This simulation is being designed to drive a system for computer animation as part of a larger program concerned with the translation of movement notation into animated graphics. The simulation is based on a model of the human body as a network of special-purpose processors -- one processor situated at each joint of the body -- each with an instruction set designed around a set of primitive movement concepts. We shall discuss the extent to which all these processors may employ the same architecture and the function of the network structure

Movement Notation Revisited: Syntax of the Common Morphokinetic Alphabet (CMA) System

Advances in the study of non-verbal behavior and communication have generated a need for movement transcription systems capable of incorporating continuous developments in visual and computer technology. Our research team has been working on the construction of a common morphokinetic alphabet (CMA) for the systematic observation of daily life activities. The project, which was launched several years ago, was designed to create a system for describing and analyzing body motion expression, physical activity, and physical appearance. In this paper, we describe an idiosyncratic application of Noam Chomsky's phrase marker grammar to the morphokinetic phrase, the objective being to establish the grammatical rules and basic order of the symbol string according to a relational tree formed by the breakdown of the syntactic components identified as structuring the visual description of movement. Criteria for using the CMA as a coding system and a free transcription system are proposed

Simulating Humans: Computer Graphics, Animation, and Control

People are all around us. They inhabit our home, workplace, entertainment, and environment. Their presence and actions are noted or ignored, enjoyed or disdained, analyzed or prescribed. The very ubiquitousness of other people in our lives poses a tantalizing challenge to the computational modeler: people are at once the most common object of interest and yet the most structurally complex. Their everyday movements are amazingly uid yet demanding to reproduce, with actions driven not just mechanically by muscles and bones but also cognitively by beliefs and intentions. Our motor systems manage to learn how to make us move without leaving us the burden or pleasure of knowing how we did it. Likewise we learn how to describe the actions and behaviors of others without consciously struggling with the processes of perception, recognition, and language

Movement Notation Revisited: Syntax of the Common Morphokinetic Alphabet (CMA) System

Advances in the study of non-verbal behavior and communication have generated a need for movement transcription systems capable of incorporating continuous developments in visual and computer technology. Our research team has been working on the construction of a common morphokinetic alphabet (CMA) for the systematic observation of daily life activities. The project, which was launched several years ago, was designed to create a system for describing and analyzing body motion expression, physical activity, and physical appearance. In this paper, we describe an idiosyncratic application of Noam Chomsky’s phrase marker grammar to the morphokinetic phrase, the objective being to establish the grammatical rules and basic order of the symbol string according to a relational tree formed by the breakdown of the syntactic components identified as structuring the visual description of movement. Criteria for using the CMA as a coding system and a free transcription system are proposed

The Object of Platform Studies: Relational Materialities and the Social Platform (the case of the Nintendo Wii)

Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System,by Ian Bogost and Nick Montfort, inaugurated thePlatform Studies series at MIT Press in 2009.We’ve coauthored a new book in the series, Codename: Revolution: the Nintendo Wii Video Game Console. Platform studies is a quintessentially Digital Humanities approach, since it’s explicitly focused on the interrelationship of computing and cultural expression. According to the series preface, the goal of platform studies is “to consider the lowest level of computing systems and to understand how these systems relate to culture and creativity.”In practice, this involves paying close attentionto specific hardware and software interactions--to the vertical relationships between a platform’s multilayered materialities (Hayles; Kirschenbaum),from transistors to code to cultural reception. Any given act of platform-studies analysis may focus for example on the relationship between the chipset and the OS, or between the graphics processor and display parameters or game developers’ designs.In computing terms, platform is an abstraction(Bogost and Montfort), a pragmatic frame placed around whatever hardware-and-software configuration is required in order to build or run certain specificapplications (including creative works). The object of platform studies is thus a shifting series of possibility spaces, any number of dynamic thresholds between discrete levels of a system

Nama marks and etchings: Employing movement analysis techniques to interpret the Nama Stap.

The Khoisan are the indigenous peoples of Southern Africa, whose existence can be traced back some 2000 years to the Cape area of what is today South Africa. The Nama, the people whose dancing is the subject of this study, are the descendents of these original inhabitants of South Africa. The Nama are scattered among five 'coloured-reserve' areas in the north-west area of South Africa. This study concerns the Nama who live in !Khubus in the Richtersveld region of Namaqualand near the Orange River. Like other indigenous peoples in what is today popularly referred to as the 'Rainbow Nation', the Nama have been profoundly affected by colonisation and a brutal apartheid regime. It is not too difficult, at a superficial level at least, to distinguish supposedly traditional Nama customs from those they have adopted. The most obvious of these can readily be observed in language (Afrikaans), religious practices, architecture, and dancing. These activities are fertile examples of both acculturation and survival. The activities known as The Nama Stap (Step) and The Nama Stap Dance the subject of this dissertation, are particular examples of such fusion and endurance. They at once demonstrate the Nama drive for survival through adaptation and their need for continuity. This dissertation assesses and critiques movement analysis techniques. It then applies complementary methodologies including anthropology, ethnography, dance analysis, Labanotation and Laban Movement Analysis to address the continuities to be found In what the Nama call their 'national dance', how these have survived through a process of fusion, and how this historic female puberty rite has been transformed Into a contemporary statement of the solidarity between Nama women

Framing dance writing : a corpus linguistics approach

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ECLAP 2012 Conference on Information Technologies for Performing Arts, Media Access and Entertainment

It has been a long history of Information Technology innovations within the Cultural Heritage areas. The Performing arts has also been enforced with a number of new innovations which unveil a range of synergies and possibilities. Most of the technologies and innovations produced for digital libraries, media entertainment and education can be exploited in the field of performing arts, with adaptation and repurposing. Performing arts offer many interesting challenges and opportunities for research and innovations and exploitation of cutting edge research results from interdisciplinary areas. For these reasons, the ECLAP 2012 can be regarded as a continuation of past conferences such as AXMEDIS and WEDELMUSIC (both pressed by IEEE and FUP). ECLAP is an European Commission project to create a social network and media access service for performing arts institutions in Europe, to create the e-library of performing arts, exploiting innovative solutions coming from the ICT