Two undergraduate courses conduced online during the Covid-19 pandemic, in parallel, explored performance and production techniques for remote virtual environments. A selection of scenes from The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (2005) by Stephen Adly Guirgis were rehearsed within different evolving virtual worlds, made with real-time virtual backgrounds in Zoom, shared-screen real-time 2D compositing in TouchDesigner, and a shared 3D environment in Unreal Engine. Taught by Theater … [Read more...] about Performance for Virtual Environments & Production Practice in Theater with Emerging Technologies
Education
UCLA TFT Future Storytelling Summer Institute 2020 (Remote Edition)
In July 2020, a multidisciplinary group of graduate students, faculty, staff, and guest mentors investigated how shared virtual environments can support “next generation narrative.” As with the previous two editions of FSSI, the 2020 Institute focused on creating a resonant storytelling experience centered on social impact themes—inspiring students to illuminate the human condition, inspire social change, and make a difference in the world—using emerging technologies: augmented reality in … [Read more...] about UCLA TFT Future Storytelling Summer Institute 2020 (Remote Edition)
Graduate Certificate in Emerging Technologies for Performance
The UCLA Department of Theater and UCLA REMAP have established the Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Emerging Technologies for Performance. Beginning in academic year 2020, graduate students from all Theater disciplines will be able to gain advanced training in the roles, impacts, socio-technical contexts, and practical design and integration strategies for emerging technologies—leading to being awarded Certificates from the Department along with their degrees upon graduation. … [Read more...] about Graduate Certificate in Emerging Technologies for Performance
Marty Sklar Entertainment Innovation Fellowship
UCLA REMAP is proud to announce the Marty Sklar Entertainment Innovation Fellowship, established in 2020, which will support high-achieving students with $10,000 each to participate in major collaborative projects at REMAP that interweave the physical and digital worlds to share new kinds of stories, and engage with the legacy and future of themed entertainment. The Fellowship will support UCLA students from TFT as well as other disciplines including Engineering. In the 2020-2021 academic … [Read more...] about Marty Sklar Entertainment Innovation Fellowship
UCLA TFT Future Storytelling Summer Institute 2019
From September 9-21, 2019, UCLA TFT’s Future Storytelling Summer Institute (FSSI) brought together a multidisciplinary group of graduate students, faculty, staff, and guest mentors to investigate how social impact storytelling can incorporate contemporary artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. As with the 2018 session, which used AR to bring audiences into a fantasy world as apprentices preparing to fight for their identities amid border and environmental crises, the 2019 Institute … [Read more...] about UCLA TFT Future Storytelling Summer Institute 2019
UCLA TFT Future Storytelling Summer Institute 2018
From July 9 to 28, the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television’s 2018 Future Storytelling Summer Institute brought together a multidisciplinary group of graduate students, faculty, staff, and distinguished guest artists/mentors to investigate storytelling in augmented reality (AR) and explore the unique possibilities it offers as a platform for social impact entertainment. The guiding question, at the intersection of research and practice, for the Institute was: What makes … [Read more...] about UCLA TFT Future Storytelling Summer Institute 2018
Future Storytelling Summer Institute 2014
From July 17 to August 1, 2014, a multidisciplinary group of graduate and advanced undergraduate students from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT) explored new forms of storytelling and performance using virtual production, motion capture, and dynamic design tools. Each day, they received instruction in cutting-edge technology, and applied these skills to collaborative projects. Each evening, they rehearsed these works-in-progress while creating media at a … [Read more...] about Future Storytelling Summer Institute 2014
IMLab Summer Workshop 2012
For the summer of 2012, UCLA REMAP teamed with Public Matters, an LA-based nonprofit dedicated to creativity and civic engagement, to run a six-week workshop for Los Angeles high school students. An initiative of REMAP and California State Parks' Interpretive Media Laboratory (IMLab), with support from UCLA’s Center for Embedded Network Sensing (CENS), the program guided students to research the Los Angeles State Historic Park (LASHP), IMLab's "living laboratory" near Downtown Los Angeles, and … [Read more...] about IMLab Summer Workshop 2012
Contemporary Artificial Intelligence in Live Performance
This graduate course introduces contemporary artificial intelligence techniques with a specific focus on their current and potential applications in live performance, especially theater. Oriented towards theater practitioners of all disciplines and scholars, it covers computer vision, sentiment analysis, natural language processing, and deep learning, among others. In particular, the class concentrates on techniques that are becoming widely and inexpensively available through open source … [Read more...] about Contemporary Artificial Intelligence in Live Performance
Survey of Emerging Technologies and Their Uses in Live Performance
This joint graduate-undergraduate course is surveying major emerging technologies and their potential uses within and impact on live performance---pulling from, for example, augmented and virtual reality, electronic textiles, the Internet of Things, and modern approaches to artificial intelligence. Through lectures, in-class experiments, and group research projects, the class is examining many of the technologies revolutionizing consumer markets and the daily experiences of people across the … [Read more...] about Survey of Emerging Technologies and Their Uses in Live Performance
Laboratorio de Interactividad Corporal
REMAP and Open Perception's OpenPTrack Version 2 (Gnocchi) is now being used for the Laboratorio de Interactividad Corporal (Body Interactivity Laboratory) at the Centro Hipermediatico Experimental Latinoamericano (cheLA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A joint initiative of REMAP and cheLA, the Lab got underway this past February, and is developing three new performance pieces that "explore concepts, implications and technologies of physical tracking and augmented reality," … [Read more...] about Laboratorio de Interactividad Corporal
Future Storytelling Studio
Co-taught by J. Ed Araiza (head of UCLA's MFA acting program) and REMAP Director Jeff Burke, this two-quarter, multidisciplinary studio-style course explored the intersection of text and code in live performance, through the collaborative development and staging of a new multimedia theater piece. Araiza, Burke and students created the text for the piece, Los Atlantis, and the class worked closely with REMAP artist-researchers to envision and build performance, media, and technology … [Read more...] about Future Storytelling Studio
Acting for Virtual Environments
This course focuses on synthesizing actors' gestures, actions and, ultimately, characterizations into creating scene work for motion capture and virtual environments. By using short scenes, acting, film production and animation students immerse themselves in a collaboration exploring character through different acting techniques, and playing with size and intensity of energy. Principles of acting and physical performance empower and liberate the students to create characters, explore the … [Read more...] about Acting for Virtual Environments
MIAS Digital Portfolio Course
This Moving Image Archive Studies (MIAS) seminar, taught by REMAP's Jeff Burke, explored technologies, design approaches, and motivations for creating online, media-supported critical essays using “off-the-shelf” tools and Internet standards. Students focussed their work on a quarter-long project related to their ongoing research, intended to be expanded after the class to fulfill MIAS thesis requirements. Established in 2002, UCLA’s MIAS master's degree program is jointly sponsored by … [Read more...] about MIAS Digital Portfolio Course
Interactive Digital Media Showcases
Since the beginning of the 2013-14 academic year, REMAP researchers and artists have been supporting the work of students in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT)'s Interactive Digital Media (IDM) concentration. Under the supervision of REMAP's Fabian Wagmister and Jeff Burke, the students have developed and built interactive installations as their thesis projects, premiering at UCLA and the Interpretive Media Laboratory (IMLab). Initially called the "Non-Fiction/Digital Media … [Read more...] about Interactive Digital Media Showcases
Location-Based and Audience-Aware Storytelling
This two-semester workshop-seminar guided students to conceptualize, author, produce and distribute "next generation" experiences. Key enabling technologies---such as wearable computing, augmented reality, GPS, and HTML5---were covered from both a conceptual and practical perspective. Experimental cinema, television and performance, new media art, oral storytelling and the design of built environments were surveyed, as challenges of interactivity, openness, and dynamic narrative structures … [Read more...] about Location-Based and Audience-Aware Storytelling
REMAP/RITL Workshop for Digital Media, Theatre & Design
The REMAP/RITL Workshop for Digital Media, Theatre and Design in Formello, Rome, explored how emerging technologies, materials, and media practices can provide new theatrical languages for stage designers and theatre-makers. A set of technology platforms and tools were chosen for their potential impact on scenography in its broadest sense, and their connection to consumer and industrial technologies that shape our lives. Technologies included Touchdesigner, Max/MSP, and common sensors. A set of … [Read more...] about REMAP/RITL Workshop for Digital Media, Theatre & Design
Italian Ministry of Youth Policy
Through a program sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Youth Policy, REMAP and UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television hosted 25 top students from Italy working at the intersection of visual language and technology, including screenwriting, cinematography, set design, video direction, post production, and computer science. A small group were in residence for four months working with REMAP to conceive, research, and prototype original interactive multimedia work. A larger group, in residence … [Read more...] about Italian Ministry of Youth Policy
Building Virtual Worlds
This class explored the use of virtual worlds in live performance. In particular, it focused on their intersection with the real world (via projection, cameras, monitors, etc.) to create new scenographic possibilities. Students created 3D environments—built up from a combination of 3D models and 2D drawings, photographs and videos—that served as the “worlds” from which visuals were drawn in real time to create projected scenic elements for performance. The class also explored the relationship … [Read more...] about Building Virtual Worlds
NUS-MDA SHAPE (Singapore)
In the interest of bringing fresh perspectives and fostering international relationships, REMAP has been hosting interns from Singapore---through the Singapore Hollywood Attachment Programme (SHAPE) of the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore's Media Development Authority (MDA). These interns---top tertiary students and professionals from Singapore's digital media field---have been making substantial contributions to REMAP's work. With experience in pre-visualization, web … [Read more...] about NUS-MDA SHAPE (Singapore)
Cross-disciplinary Scholars in Science and Technology
REMAP has been participating in the UCLA Cross-disciplinary Scholars in Science and Technology (CSST) program, hosting stellar undergraduates in computer science and engineering from China, and involving them in multidisciplinary research for REMAP projects. 2009-present. … [Read more...] about Cross-disciplinary Scholars in Science and Technology
Eco-Interns/Earth Day Latino
Twenty-five Latinx students gathered on the first weekend of April 2011 to engage in a cultural media project with Fabian Wagmister. Armed with mobile phone cameras, they actively researched and gathered information in the Los Angeles State Historic Park. Together they created a collective expression of the co-existence of nature and the city. The efforts were translated into a billboard, and the final artwork was unveiled opposite the park on Earth Day Latino. There, for the first time, a … [Read more...] about Eco-Interns/Earth Day Latino
Location-based Storytelling
Involving research and hands-on production, this course focused on creating non-linear cinema for mobile devices. With support from Nokia Research Hollywood, the students ultimately produced 50 minutes of edited footage, shot in 15 different places over 12 days. The locations included the Bradbury Building, Santa Monica Pier, and the Los Angeles Central Library. Jeff Burke, with Juha Hemanus and Vids Samanta (Nokia Research)---Film, Television and Digital Media 298A---Fall 2010/Spring 2011. … [Read more...] about Location-based Storytelling
Site, Set, and Media: Puppeted Architecture
This two-quarter course explored the theory and manifestations of the design of physically malleable scenery that is site-specific and incorporates projected digital media. The students’ final collaborative work was the design for an an original adaptation of Macbeth, developed by Jeff Burke, Peter Karapetkov, and Jared J. Stein. Puppeted architecture was inspired by REMAP’s work with the Rhodope International Theatre Laboratory, PURE Theatre (Charleston), and Three Chairs Theatre (Los … [Read more...] about Site, Set, and Media: Puppeted Architecture
The Color of Dissonance
REMAP's Jeff Burke led a workshop on the use of media in performance during a residency at Southwestern University (SU), assisting the Theater Department in developing a media-rich production concept for an original operetta based on the relationship between W. Kandinsky, A. Schoenberg, and G. Munter. The piece was co-written by SU professors Sergio Costola, Jason Hoogerhyde, and Kimberly Smith. The show's projection design, by student Duncan Alexander, went on to win the 2008-2009 Austin … [Read more...] about The Color of Dissonance