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Performing Arts Collections Home Sci-Art: Bio-Robotic Choreography Project Website deposited by Barry Smith, University of Bristol, 2006 and implemented into AHDS content delivery system. Collection Home | Project Overview and Credits | Presentations | Robot design | Renders | Interface | Photographs | AnimationsDescription Launched at a special event on Friday March 23rd 2001, "Sci-art: Bio-Robotic Choreography" is an initiative that brings together artists, scientists and technicians for an intriguing exploration of human/machine relationships. The robot will have the ability to work in partnership with a human body to experiment with alternative kinds of choreography. Project Co-ordinator and Director ofthe Performance Arts Digital Research Unit , Professor Barry Smith, explained at the launch that the project was a continuation of separate work that had been undertaken by Stelarc, Principal Research Fellow at Nottingham Trent, and Dr Inman Harvey of COGS, University of Sussex. Bringing his expertise and experience to Sci-art is world renowned performance artist Stelarc. Over the last 30 years, Stelarc has gained acclaim for his examination of the body's capabilities and experiences through augmentation and extension using prosthetics, robotics, virtual reality systems and the Internet. See aspects of this work in the Alternate Interfaces presentation. Commenting on the Sci-art project, Stelarc explained: "The body is not merely a passenger on the robot. The smart robot design will result in a more subtle mechanical interface. The robot's mode of locomotion, its direction and speed are actuated by the shifting of the body's weight and the twisting torso." The robot has been designed by Dr Inman Harvey from the University of Sussex. Providing a choreographic influence will be Senior Lecturer in Visual and Performing Arts Dr Sophia Lycouris, whose research interests include cross-media collaboration, improvised performance, video choreography and concepts of movement and body.    Project Partners The “Sci-Art: Bio-Robotic Choreography” project was managed by Nottingham Trent University and the School of Cognitive and Computer Sciences at the University of Sussex. The project was supported by the Wellcome Trust - the prominent medical research charity. Project Team CONCEPT & PERFORMANCE: Stelarc (DRU) Engineer: John Luxton (COGS) Thanks also to Linc Smith, Rachel Wood, Airtechnics Ltd of Horsham.  Stelarc has been performing for over 30 years with alternate interfaces that have augmented and extended the body's capabilities and experiences. He has worked with prosthetics, robotics, virtual reality systems and the Internet as mediums of artistic expression. He has been a Senior Research Scholar at The Nottingham Trent University since 1998 and has been recently appointed as Principal Research Fellow in the Performance Arts Digital Research Unit at The Nottingham Trent University. During the first year of this three year appointment he will be working on a project titled 'Sci-art: Bio-robotic Choreography' funded by The Wellcome Trust and working in partnership with the School of Cognitive and Computer Sciences at the University of Sussex. The project involves the exploration of human/machine interface by the development of an intelligent insect like robot. This subtle interplay within the partnership between human and robot bodies will explore alternate kinds of choreography, culminating in a series of performances. In recent years he has been appointed as an honorary Professor of Art and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh USA and was recently given an honorary doctorate by Monash University in Melbourne Australia. He has lived in Japan for 19 years and has an excellent knowledge of the state-of-art of robotics and has connections with robotics engineers world-wide.
Inman Harvey is Senior Lecturer in the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences at the University of Sussex, with affiliations to various research groups. In particular he is a founder member of the Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems group, now the largest research group in the world dealing with Artificial Life and similar areas where Biology meets Technology and Artificial Intelligence. He originally started as a mathematician and philosopher at Cambridge, then via diversions such as Social Anthropology and an extended period managing his own import/export company, came to Sussex to gain a doctorate in his speciality, artificial evolution. He is adviser on Artificial Life to the UK Government Foresight Programme. He is on numerous Scientific Committees, and has given invited talks on his work in US, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands. Organiser of the Alergic group at Sussex, on Artificial Life and Adaptive Behaviour, which brings together cognitive scientists, philosophers and biologists for regular talks and discussions. Co-organiser of the Fourth European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL97) in Brighton, UK, July 1997, and on the Advisory Board for the following ECAL99 and ECAL01. http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/inmanh/
Sophia Lycouris is a London-based dance artist, a company director and lecturer. Her work explores cross-disciplinary performance and multimedia work (including digital media) that bring together elements of movement, sound and image as part of wider choreographic environments. Since 1997, Sophia Lycouris directs KUNSTWERK-BLEND interdisciplinary company, a project-based company committed to interdisciplinary and hybrid work, for which she has created performances, performance/installations and web-based work. Stories in D is a performance piece presented in London and New York. next2 is a performance/installation piece presented in London, Manchester and Nottingham yo-land is a live performance piece presented around Britain and in New York trans/forms is an internet-based live performance project presented in Arizona, USA Borderlander, is a performance/installation presented in Wales, London and Romania String is an internet-based performance/installation presented in London, Lancaster, Pennsylvania (USA) and France. Sophia Lycouris has received funding from London Arts to develop homezone for KUNSTWERK-BLEND during 2000-2001 and she is one of the 10 recipients of CAPTURE award offered by the Arts Council of England for the creation of screen-based dance work BODYSIGHT. Finally Sophia Lycouris has collaborated with The Wakeford Trio to choreograph and perform Toward Syrinx and with Sound Affairs company to create and perform the opera/theatre piece Shot in the Head. Sophia Lycouris holds a PhD in the improvised performance in dance, and has been teaching dance and interdisciplinary practices at The Nottingham Trent University since 1997. She has recently received an Arts and Humanities Research Board fellowship to undertake a 3-year long project in interdisciplinary choreographic explorations. http://www.kunstwerk-blend.co.uk Professor Barry Smith Professor Barry Smith is Director of the Performance Arts Digital Research Unit at The Nottingham Trent University School of Art & Design, UK. He is currently coordinating this Wellcome Trust Sci-art project between the University's Principal Research Fellow -Stelarc - and the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics, University of Sussex. Work within the Digital Research Unit also includes the Digital Performance Archive (in collaboration with University of Salford and co-directed with Steve Dixon) and a range of research projects involving new developments in performance and live art (computers, artificial intelligence, robotics etc), the Live Art Archives UK (including the National Review of Live Art Video Archive, Arts Council of Great Britain Brochure Archive and many smaller collections). He is also Chair of the SCUDD (Standing Conference of UK University Drama Departments) IT Group, member of the Performance Studies International Communications Committee, Panel Member of U.K. National Research Assessment, member of the Advisory Group to the national PARIP Project ["Practice as Research in Performance"] and a member of the UK's national advisory board to the Performing Arts Data Service responsible for collation and standards within the Performing Arts sector in the UK. He lectures frequently on digital/performance art/archives and has recently commenced an international collaboration with the Cleveland Performance Festival Archives USA. Recent publications include essays on "Live Art's Digital Horizons..." (Oxford University Press),"Information Overload..." (OHC King's College) and "The Tip of the Iceberg" [on live art histories]. He is Series Editor of Live Art Letters and Guest Editor of Guide to Good Practice: Creating Digital Performance Resources published by the UK's Arts and Humanities Data Service. Dr Ken Arnold Ken Arnold studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge and wrote a Ph.D. dissertation for Princeton University, the history of English museums. Since then, he has worked in a variety of museums on both sides of the Atlantic. His arrival at the Wellcome Trust in 1992 allowed him further to pursue his historical interests, while enabling him to present his findings in the form of exhibitions. More recently he has taken up the position of Exhibitions Department Manager. His department now runs a variety of arts and exhibitions activities, which include two galleries devoted to exploring the culture of medicine (that is its art, science and history) and a variety of funding initiatives aimed at promoting the mutual interaction of contemporary medical science and the arts (most notably the sciart and Science on Stage & Screen initiatives). He is also project Manager and Chief Curator of a major exhibition on Henry Wellcome's collection planned for 2003. He regularly writes and lectures on the culture of museums past and present. He is married and lives in London with his wife and two sons. Dr Phil Breedon  Phil Breedon is Technical Support Manager within the School of Engineering, Faculty of Construction, Computing and Technology at the Nottingham Trent University. Phil's main duties at present include responsibility for technical support, operational support, technical development and supporting research activities within the School of Engineering. He started his career as an indentured apprentice, receiving training in manufacturing, IT, materials testing, design, multimedia and electronics. Phil has also taken on a series of engineering and computing academic challenges culminating in the award of his PhD based on artificial intelligence and robotics. His research centred on developing and improving the control system for an industrial robot at Nottingham Trent. The new fuzzy robot control system was based on simple linguistic rules making user adjustments easy to interpret and modify whilst also providing a more flexible, accurate and reliable control system for real time multiple axis robotic control. Following on from his latest research project, Phil recently presented a paper on Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Control at the World Congress on Computational Intelligence in Hawaii in 2002. Phil is also a member of the Manufacturing Automation Research Group within the school. His latest project is the Anatomical Exoskeleton; this exciting and innovative project is set to provide numerous challenges for the development team in terms of both engineering design and control. http://www.fact.ntu.ac.ukStan Wijnans  Stan Wijnans is a Dutch sonic artist and MAX/MSP/Jitter programmer specialised in interactive music performances working with motion capture and sensor systems. She started her career as a professional bassguitar player and studied Sonology (electronic music) and the Art of Image at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, the Netherlands. She was employed for several years as a Protools / Logic Audio / Peak studio sound engineer. She is particularly interested in the way improvised elements from different live art disciplines can expand the artistic-audiovisual connection created by interactivity and in the possibilities for interesting ( not necessarily objective ) realtime digital transformations of live action in which the involved disciplines 'borrow'each others expressions and vocabulary to trigger the respective media. Her interactive improvised multimedia project 'Frozen White' has been performed in September 2002 at The ICA and Colourscape festival, London. Movements of the dancers triggered ultra light sensors manipulating the computer processes influencing, changing and colouring the sounds performed by 3 live musicians. The site specific interactive environment project 'Intelligent City' with choreographer/visual artist Sophia Lycouris and choreographer/multimedia artist Yakov Sharir will be presented late 2003. This wireless and wearable computer project triggers the audience with a VNS camera based sensor system and Jitter to direct interactive multi-speaker sound systems and video effects. Stan collaborated with choreographer Isabel Rocamora in the Zero-Gravity movement and neuro-science project 'Memory Release'. She also researched a Hyperlink motion capture system and interactive video programming using MAX/MSP/Jitter. Currently Stan is researching 'Sonour Mapping', an improvised interactive action painting-, sound-, video- and movement performance. The data from the live painter will be translated realtime into sound (by triggering sensors attached to the canvas) to direct the participating movement artist, who will trigger a camera based sensor system effecting a video from the painting. She has been appointed by The Nottingham Trent University as research assistant and composer to develop an interactive sound system for Stelarc's Bio-Robotic Choreography project 'Anatomical Exoskeleton' Credits STELARC Stelarc is also Honorary Professor of Art and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh USA ALTERNATE INTERFACES CD-ROM EXTENDED ARM This project was first researched during an Australia Council Visual Art/Crafts Board Fellowship. MOVATAR The first performance was for Cybercultures at the Casula Powerhouse in Australia EXOSKELETON This project was sponsored by SMC Pneumatics and coordinated by Eva Diegritz as a co-production of Kampnagel Hamburg, F18 and Diekmann Enterprises. | |||
