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Research

The following are presented as a sample of the multiple interdisciplinary potential applications of the HyperMedia Studio.

AREA: Documentation of artistic performance

The challenges posed in documenting performance processes are a priority concern to many artistic endeavors, ranging from the fine arts and the performing arts to all areas of popular entertainment. The many uses for advanced performance documentation include, but are not limited to, the training of new artists, the establishment of objective criteria for critical evaluation and the preservation of creative processes as part of cultural memory. The integration of a performance space with advance sensing/monitoring technologies opens up possibilities for significant advances in this area.

Research issues:

  • The scope and limits of using multiple camera video to document performance and choreography
  • Expanding the documentation of dance through the use of computer sensing technology , 3D modeling, and other digital analysis methods
  • The use of computers to integrate visual records and sensing analysis with established forms of dance notation

Project:

As a pilot project we propose to use the HyperMedia Studio and its capabilities towards the documentation of dance performances and choreography. We have the opportunity to work collaboratively with the Department of Dance and the Center for the Study of Cultural Performance.

AREA: Virtual actors in narrative performance

Groundbreaking and innovative types of narrative for all media (moving image, theatrical, digital) are possible though the use of technologies enabling the integration of smart, self-conforming virtual actors.

Research issues:

  • How virtual actors can be creatively written into narrative structures as "smart performers".
  • The integration of aleatory real-time animation into works of dramatic fiction
  • Ways that established modes of theatrical performance can be enhanced by smart digital agents.

AREA: Multimedia database structures in performance context

The utilization of audiovisual and narrative database structures opens the doors to completely new types of media creation, management and presentation. Particularly interesting are the creative possibilities suggested by the real-time interaction of performers and viewers with narratively define datasets (sound, image, text). For example, the scripted or aleatory insertion of archival material into a pre-established scenario to be used to advance the narrative.

Research issues:

  • The use of digital video and sound streams from a databased archive in theatrical/performance environments.
  • Ways that digital technologies can facilitate innovative uses of historically significant archival materials in the context of performance.
  • The education uses of digital media technologies in the important area of historical and cultural memory.

Project: "Historical Memory in a Digital Databased Narrative"

Using the advanced database capabilities of the HyperMedia Studio we propose to situate historic newsreel footage drawn from the Film and Television Archive within narrative contexts that are both multi-directional and interactive, thereby reflecting more accurately the real-life dynamics of historical memory (i.e. how issues from the past can become compelling and relevant to the present and future).

The Film and Television Archive in collaboration with the Department of Film and Television intents to use the HyperMedia Studio as a site for a performance piece in which live actors interact both proactively and reactively to historical memories triggered by a mixture of newsreel and contemporary news footage as provided by an advance self-conforming database.

UCLA HyperMedia Studio
102 East Melnitz Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095
310.794.5358 - info@hypermedia.ucla.edu
directions to the studio
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