Movement and Emotion as Computational Interfaces

workshop :: June 6th - June 12th, 2016

This workshop will explore how technology can help us create deeper connections with the world around us, each other, and ourselves by combining the latest advances in bioinformatic sensing technology with modes of physiological awareness found in somatic performance practice. Primary outputs of this workshop will result in first principles in the creation of new and novel interfaces that integrate complex physiological data in performance and computational art contexts.

Lead by an interdisciplinary team that have backgrounds in performance, computational art, and bioengineering, the workshop will be a point of convergence for fields that are working in the larger domain of emotive research both internationally and within Canada. This includes, neuroscientists who are researching affect and how it is influenced by the world around us; consciousness hackers who explore how technology can positively change the way we think, feel, and live; performers and others who engage the systems of the body through a system of embodiment, in order to become more gain a deeper somatic awareness; and computational artists, who use technology to explore questions of human and machine through technology based artworks that critique our techno-scientific world. The workshop is targeted for a diverse audience including students, emerging scholars and other highly qualified personnel from both the academic and private sectors. Participants are welcome from a variety of fields that could such as performance, somatic movement and awareness, computational media arts, entertainment, gaming, computer science, architecture, urban planning, and other art/science collaborations.