The National Science Foundation-supported Promoting Learning though Annotation of Embodiment (PLAE) project builds on the ongoing Science Through Technology Enhanced Play (STEP) project---which has been using REMAP and Open Perception's OpenPTrack as the interface between the movements of groups of elementary school students and media. PLAE continues STEP's investigation of socio-dramatic play and learning about scientific phenomena by adding the ability for students to use an iPad application, … [Read more...] about Promoting Learning though Annotation of Embodiment (PLAE)
Research
Einstein’s Dreams
UCLA REMAP and the Buenos Aires-based company Cuerda Productions collaboratively experimented with the use of media in aerial performance at cheLA in March & April 2013. The intensive, exploratory workshop used Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman as source material, and researched possibilities for new software, composition, sound & lighting design, projection of images, video & text, and Cuerda's water wall & "flying" actors. The REMAP team consisted of Jeff Burke (REMAP … [Read more...] about Einstein’s Dreams
Ambient Informatics
In most cities, even though sidewalks are occupied by pedestrians throughout the day, they are neglected spaces. People waiting at bus stops, for example, are often frustrated by inhospitable conditions and a lack of information about arrivals and other schedule details. With smartphones, applications like Next Bus, and 511 services, many people are able to access public transport data. However, when transport services are not connected to an “app,” or serve those without technology in their … [Read more...] about Ambient Informatics
OpenPTrack
An open source software project led by UCLA REMAP and Open Perception (Point Cloud Library), OpenPTrack originated to create a scalable, multi-camera solution for group person tracking to support applications in education, art, and culture. And as of 2018, with V2 (Gnocchi), OpenPTrack now includes object tracking and pose recognition. With the advent of commercially available consumer depth sensors, and continued efforts in computer vision research to improve multi-modal image … [Read more...] about OpenPTrack
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
IMLab LASHP Trails App
As an extension of the ongoing collaboration between UCLA REMAP and California State Parks, the Interpretive Media Laboratory (IMLab) has been developing a mobile app to provide historical and cultural context for urban trails in Los Angeles. The current mobile website version (spring 2014) presents three looped "interactive interpretive" trails that start at the Los Angeles State Historic Park (LASHP), IMLab's "living laboratory," and wind through some of the oldest sections of the City. … [Read more...] about IMLab LASHP Trails App
Grace Plains
As one of two productions resulting from TFT's participation in Google's Glass Creative Collective and the corresponding two-semester course, Location-Based and Audience-Aware Storytelling, Grace Plains combined interactive theatre with live-action role-playing. Audience participants were led along a continuously changing set of circumstances as they unfolded on three different sets at Google's YouTube Space Los Angeles. A team of writers, directors, and technicians from control rooms elsewhere … [Read more...] about Grace Plains
Bodies for a Global Brain
The pilot episode of Bodies for a Global Brain was one of two productions resulting from UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT)'s participation in Google's Glass Creative Collective and the corresponding two-semester course, Location-Based and Audience-Aware Storytelling, taught by REMAP's Jeff Burke. A web series written by graduate film student Eben Portnoy, as a collaboration with other TFT students, and from a variety of UCLA departments (Computer Science, Business, etc.), Global … [Read more...] about Bodies for a Global Brain
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
Cybermural: Interactive Digital Mural at Los Angeles State Historic Park
Funded through a National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER), the Interpretive Media Laboratory (IMLab) partnership between UCLA REMAP and California State Parks was furthered with the creation of an interactive digital mural in Los Angeles State Historic Park (LASHP), while incorporating research in the learning sciences, and creating a prototype cyberlearning experience. The public space installation was an opportunity for informal learning … [Read more...] about Cybermural: Interactive Digital Mural at Los Angeles State Historic Park
Bridging Media on Cultural Sites
Bridging Media on Cultural Sites: the Colosseum as Media for Non-linear Storytelling used video streaming, HTML5 technology, and mobile phones to create experimental narratives based on historical scenes (known and unknown) in the Colosseum. One of the most popular monuments in the world, the Colosseum attracts millions of visitors every year. It has inspired numerous movies and television programs, as well as websites, interactive DVDs, and video games. This research project created a … [Read more...] about Bridging Media on Cultural Sites
Transmedia Hollywood 2012
REMAP collaborated on the creation of a sculpture which visualized creative labor and its relationship to gross domestic product (GDP) across the world. It had five intertwined strands of 50 lighting elements, each of which represented a country. They were arranged by GDP per capita, progressing from the so-called “global north” (Norway) to the “global south” (Ethiopia). The system faded through a decade of creative labor data from the UN for each country, for each of four categories: 1) … [Read more...] about Transmedia Hollywood 2012
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
Participatory Sensing
REMAP contributed to "Participatory Sensing" research through collaborations with UCLA's National Science Foundation-supported Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS)---helping to coin the term in 2006. Participatory Sensing is an approach to data collection and interpretation in which individuals, acting alone or in groups, use their personal mobile devices and web services to explore interesting aspects of their worlds systematically---ranging from health to culture. The number … [Read more...] about Participatory Sensing
Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 was a stage adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s science fiction classic, performed as a student workshop production at UCLA. Directors Marc Fellner & Kathy Castoro and producer DJ Gugenheim (all undergraduates) worked with the Hypermedia Studio, which led a team of student programmers to design the video systems. Live and prerecorded video on three rear-projection screens played from a single computer at full resolution and speed, and could be “edited” on the fly by an operator in … [Read more...] about Fahrenheit 451
The Virgin and the Unicorn
This workshop theatre production based on Leonardo Da Vinci’s version of the classic myth was created by Alexandar Iliev (Bulgarian National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts), Jed Harris (Carnegie Mellon School of Drama), Sergio Costola (Southwestern University) and Jeff Burke (UCLA REMAP) for the Rhodope International Theater Laboratory. Collaborating artists for REMAP included Cat Deakins (cinematography/visuals), Jonathan Snipes (sound design/composition), and Francesco Capodieci … [Read more...] about The Virgin and the Unicorn
Memoria Barrial
Memoria Barrial was an installation in the Buenos Aires Subway created by Fabian Wagmister, with technology conceived by Jeff Burke, and built by Zening Qu, James Dellemonico, Taylor Fitz-Gibbon, Santiago Núñez, and others at REMAP and cheLA. The interactive, multi-projector installation explored a 3D virtual space containing media artifacts from the history of Parque Patricios, the neighborhood of the newest Subte station in Buenos Aires. The project stemmed from REMAP's ongoing work with … [Read more...] about Memoria Barrial
An Adaptation of Macbeth
An Adaptation of Macbeth is an original multimedia theatrical work that has arisen out of the Rhodope International Theater Laboratory (RITL) and the ongoing collaboration between UCLA REMAP and the Bulgarian host company, the Rhodope Drama Theatre (RDT), now combined with the Plovdiv Drama Theatre (PDT) under the continued artistic direction of Krystu Krastev. The project represents a further step in the group’s investigations of theatrical media and their place within the Cyber Age. Based on a … [Read more...] about An Adaptation of Macbeth
Gone with the Wind Remixed
REMAP provided technical and production support for the development and staging of original multimedia performances inspired by critical examination of Gone with the Wind. Students---collaborating with REMAP's Jeff Burke and four-time Emmy-winning composer & visiting faculty member Laura Karpman---co-wrote, co-directed and co-designed the pieces, while also co-developing the technology. During the Fall 2011 quarter, media concepts were developed, and an interdisciplinary team formed. … [Read more...] about Gone with the Wind Remixed
Remapping LA
Remapping LA was a long-term research effort that engaged urban communities in the design of technological systems that express their cultures and identities, and is the predecessor of the Interpretive Media Laboratory (IMLab), an ongoing collaboration between UCLA REMAP and California State Parks. Remapping LA featured a decentralized approach to technological development, centered on three key principles: 1) participation of the general populace, with an emphasis on the involvement of Los … [Read more...] about Remapping LA
Mobile HiFi Tours
Mobile HiFi Tours were created in collaboration with Public Matters, the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, and the Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California. The mobile, location-based applications were created to "enable the user to travel through time, to experience the evolution of the neighborhood and the migration of Filipinos across Los Angeles through the stories of immigrants who have called it home." Guide topics included housing, employment, language, transportation, social … [Read more...] about Mobile HiFi Tours
Interpretive Media Laboratory
The Interpretive Media Laboratory (IMLab) is a partnership between UCLA REMAP and California State Parks that began in 2011---to conceive and prototype innovative approaches to interpretive technology for urban spaces. IMLab's "living laboratory" is the Los Angeles State Historic Park (LASHP), a significant 32-acre site immediately outside of Downtown Los Angeles. IMLab aims to discover and interpret culture, history and ecology through innovative use of media and technology---specifically to: … [Read more...] about Interpretive Media Laboratory
Out the Window
Out the Window was an innovative initiative that engages youth and community-based artists in writing and producing impactful videos and location-based banner images about their lives and neighborhoods for closed-circuit broadcast on the LA Metro bus system. The program was implemented with a seed grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Out the Window is a collaboration of UCLA REMAP, LA Freewaves, Public Matters, and Echo Park Film Center---with … [Read more...] about Out the Window
Skyline Traces
Skyline Traces was a mobile application developed as part of REMAP's IMLab partnership with California State Parks. Using GPS tracking, it created a window through which users could explore the hidden history of Los Angeles State Historic Park (LASHP) and its relationship to the City of Los Angeles. Visitors carried a tablet to explore historical and thematic connections among LASHP, its neighborhoods, and Los Angeles itself. For example, when visitors walked over landmarks now underground, the … [Read more...] about Skyline Traces
Illuminator
The Illuminator was a sensor network-based intelligent light control system for entertainment and media production, created as a collaboration between UCLA's Networked and Embedded Systems Laboratory (NESL) and UCLA REMAP. Unlike most sensor network applications that focused on sensing alone, a distinctive aspect of Illuminator was that it closed the loop from light sensing to control of lights. To satisfy the high-performance light sensing requirements in entertainment and media production … [Read more...] about Illuminator