grant opportunities [collaborative spaces]

May 22, 2008

"MoveGen" seeking collaborators

From Aidan Feldman (Computer Science & Dance), for a GROCS 09 proposal:

The system I am imagining, nicknamed "MoveGen", would be an interactive movement generator. This would allow a user to create a virtual character, which would take some sort of input (e.g. motion capture data, sound) and respond in a semi-autonomous way. I would personally like to incorporate this into dance performance, but I believe it could be used for other applications, as well. I imagined creating a game that acts like Peter Pan's shadow, where a projected figure would imitate the participant's movement, but then decide to tease the user and run away.

I already have a few seriously interested parties (and potential sources of funding/support), including the UM3D Lab, the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, and the Hands-On Museum.

I am looking for collaborators, particularly individuals with strong programming skills, who have an interest in the intersection of technology and the arts. I expect to encounter challenges with 3D animation and movement physics, computer vision, gesture recognition, dance improvisation, computational creativity and artificial intelligence, so experience or interest in those areas would be beneficial.

The scope of this project would be from present, at least through April 2009. I hope to conduct research and design (remotely) over the rest of this summer, and then start development by the fall.

Please contact me if you (or anyone you know) might be interested!

Aidan Feldman
4th-year, dual-degree Computer Science and Dance
email: afeld@umich.edu
cell: 708-296-3000

May 06, 2008

GROCS in the News

Congratulations to the GROCS 08 Talking Points team for the fabulous article in Concentrate!

and to the GROCS 07 Eat This Michigan! team for coverage of their project in the current edition of LSA Magazine (see the article "The Reluctant Farmer".