Recoding Innovation was a research project sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create original, short-form multimedia documentaries that present new perspectives on the roles of ethics in innovation. Produced by UCLA REMAP and the Eyes of the World Media Group, Recoding Innovation explored how ethics act as a generative force in science and engineering. Targeting an audience of undergraduate and graduate students, it encouraged consideration of ethics as not simply a … [Read more...] about Recoding Innovation
Research
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
Macbett
A mainstage production of Ionesco's political and Shakespearian satire, Macbett was directed by graduate student Adam Shive for this MFA thesis, while collaborating with the HyperMedia Studio's Jeff Burke. Burke conceived and developed interactive systems for the show: The lighting and sound were manipulated by the motion and positions of performers, enabling the supernatural characters to control how they and others within the play's world were presented. UCLA Department of Theater---2001. … [Read more...] about Macbett
Blogger Project
Written and co-directed by Tony-award winning director and UCLA theater professor Mel Shapiro, the Blogger Project interweaved elements from Homer’s Iliad, the Iraq War, and Internet-based communication within a simulated gaming world on stage. Like the Blogger Project's text, the visuals resulted from a unique collaboration. For the experimental production, REMAP gathered a team of professional alumni and student researchers---from Computer Science, Theater, Animation, Cinematography, and … [Read more...] about Blogger Project
Named Data Networking
REMAP researchers are contributing to the ongoing work of the Named Data Networking project (NDN). A multiple-institution collaboration supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the leadership of UCLA Computer Science and PARC, NDN is a new Internet architecture transitioning from the host-based addressing of IP to addressing based on data names. REMAP's Jeff Burke is Co-Principal Investigator and Application Team Lead for the project overall. Dr. Lixia Zhang (UCLA Computer … [Read more...] about Named Data Networking
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
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
Three Modern Noh Plays
Using the Ogre-based 3D engine created for Homer in Cyberspace, REMAP created the projection design for a very different theatrical experience: Three plays by Yukio Mishima—Yuya, Dojoji, and Yorobashi—directed, and translated into English for the first time, by Conor Hanratty. Projection design: Jeff Burke, Vanessa HoltgreweSoftware: Vids Samanta UCLA Department of Theater---2009. Click on any image for a larger view: … [Read more...] about Three Modern Noh Plays
Personal Environmental Impact Report
PEIR, the Personal Environmental Impact Report, was an online tool that allowed mobile phones to explore and share how users were impacting the environment and how the environment was impacting users. As a collaboration with UCLA's Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, REMAP contributed to the development of the mobile participatory sensing system, and produced an exhibition at Wired Nextfest 2008 in Chicago's Millennium Park. The project was supported by Nokia Research. 2007-2009. Click on … [Read more...] about Personal Environmental Impact Report
SPASES: Semiotic Pivot Activity Spaces
Using computer vision, Wii remotes, RFID tags, and other sensing technologies, SPASES aimed to engage first and second graders in learning the physics of force and motion. Similar to recent work in middle schools, the project used the students' physical actions as an interface to computer simulations. Younger students are good at pretend play. It is fun, but most significantly, it contains imaginary situations and sets of rules. Like play, the physical world (and computer simulations of force … [Read more...] about SPASES: Semiotic Pivot Activity Spaces
Beacon
REMAP led the design and installation of six interactive lanterns in the window of UCLA Family Commons. The lanterns had 600 individually addressable elements, with colors that changed to reflect how residents of Santa Monica felt each day. People could share their emotions anonymously through a website and Facebook, and these responses affected the lantern's colors. The spectrum of emotions translated into the different hues of the lanterns---orange-yellows for good; purple-blues for bad; green … [Read more...] about Beacon
ludiCity
ludiCity was a situationist-inspired participatory experience/performance created by Fabian Wagmister and Jeff Burke that used mobile technology to promote collective exploration of and dialogue about Los Angeles, its psychogeography and historicity. Gallery 727, Los Angeles---2009. … [Read more...] about ludiCity
Primer/Lem
Primer/Lem was an original puppet, object, and multimedia performance piece created by Matt Acheson, Jeff Burke, Tom Lee, Jonathan Snipes, and Jared J. Stein. The team received funding from The Trust for Mutual Understanding to build the piece while collaborating with puppeteers from Theatredreams Sofia and the State Puppet Theatre of Varna at the 2009 Rhodope International Theatre Laboratory in Bulgaria. The work of the great Polish writer Stanislaw Lem anticipated the way technology would … [Read more...] about Primer/Lem
Remapping LA: Hollywould
In Remapping LA: Hollywould, led by UCLA REMAP, the community around Hollywood Boulevard investigated and articulated their interpretation of the urban neighborhood’s physical, cultural and social identities, resulting in a showing at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE). Community organizations from the area collected geotagged, keyworded images, audio, and video---using cutting-edge technology, such as interpretive databases, online media, and mobile computing. These were fused … [Read more...] about Remapping LA: Hollywould
Ethics Education for Participatory Sensing
With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Ethics Education for Participatory Sensing project explored challenges related to facilitating responsible, socially trusted, and participatory ethics for data collection and analysis with urban sensing systems. Through participant observation, it developed educational materials for ethics education in science and engineering. The mobile phone network is emerging as the largest sensor network on the planet. Mobile phone users, … [Read more...] about Ethics Education for Participatory Sensing
Homer in Cyberspace
Homer in Cyberspace was a musical first performed at UCLA in 2008. The modern update to Homer's Odyssey was written by Daniel Keleher and Tony Award-winning director & UCLA professor Mel Shapiro, with original music by Roger Bourland (UCLA Professor Emeritus of Music), and media by REMAP. The piece explored the ancient tale of Odysseus, Telemachus, and Penelope amidst the modern tension between technology and the emotional soul. The media design built on techniques of past work---including … [Read more...] about Homer in Cyberspace
Junction/Juncture
As part of the long-term Remapping LA effort, an outdoor interactive digital mural was designed and installed in the Los Angeles State Historic Park. Junction/Juncture invited people to investigate and engage with Los Angeles history. The 60-foot wide projection, driven by original networked graphics software, responded to mobile text messages, the Metro train’s movement through the Sepulveda Dam, and traffic in the nearby streets---creating a dynamic display of image, video, sound, and … [Read more...] about Junction/Juncture
Quartieri della Memoria
Quartieri della memoria was an artwork for public spaces created under the direction of Alessandro Marianantoni. It focused on oral memories and set up a theater of memory as a cultural rite in the audience’s mind. Rieti, a town in the center of Italy, was chosen as the project's case study---because of the way the relationship between its residents and public space changed due to economic policy. The pre-design phase consisted of cultural research on anthropological meanings, focussed on the … [Read more...] about Quartieri della Memoria
ImageAbility
ImageAbility was an interactive installation and participatory mapping tool at the Chiparaki Cultural Civic Computing Center adjacent to the Los Angeles State Historic Park (LASHP) near Downtown Los Angeles. Part artwork and part tool for community investigation of the city, the goals were to foster dialogue, self-representation, and collective remembering and imagining alternative futures. ImageAbility used a pen sketch-based interface to explore a large database of media about Los Angeles. It … [Read more...] about ImageAbility
Kolo (and Nebesko)
Kolo was a Java-based middleware for interactive artworks, a framework for the collection of sensor data and the control of distributed media devices. And Nebesko was a scripting language for managing a Kolo network's state. The research/development team---led by Jeff Burke, Joe Kim, Eitan Mendelowitz, and Adam Pingel---explored how to provide straightforward, low-latency network connectivity and distributed state management among devices. It was used in Ecce Homology, The Iliad Project, … [Read more...] about Kolo (and Nebesko)
UCLA/Cisco Metropolitan WiFi Research Network
With the support of Cisco, and in collaboration with California State Parks, REMAP installed a 25-node wireless network covering the 32 acres of the Los Angeles State Historic Park and two outdoor areas of the UCLA campus. This infrastructure supported the Remapping LA project, as well as research on network architecture for participatory sensing. Los Angeles State Historic Park---2007-2013. Click images for larger views: … [Read more...] about UCLA/Cisco Metropolitan WiFi Research Network
South@North@South (sanas)
As an extension of the long-term, evolving international collaboration between the UC Digital Arts Research Network (UC DARNet) and the Centro Hipermediático Experimental Latinoamericano (cheLA), South@North@South (sanas) was at once 1) cross-cultural dialogue, 2) technological research, and 3) a public art production process. This multilayered, multidisciplinary project sought to investigate and generate a set of tools for meaningful dialogue and exchanges between artists and communities from … [Read more...] about South@North@South (sanas)
Rhodope International Theatre Laboratory (RITL)
For eight summers, REMAP contributed to a professional residency and conservatory training program in a mythological birthplace of Orpheus and Western theatre & drama on the Greek-Bulgarian border. Based at the Rhodope Drama Theatre (RDT) in Smolyan, Bulgaria, the Lab brought together artists from around the world for intensive training in performance forms and collaborations built around parallels in global mythology. REMAP artist-researchers provided demonstrations and hands-on … [Read more...] about Rhodope International Theatre Laboratory (RITL)
Ecce Homology
Ecce Homology was an immersive interactive visualization of genomics data based on Chinese calligraphy. It was created through a unique collaboration between media artists, computer scientists, molecular biologists and bioinformaticists. The piece visualized the operation of a working version of the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool commonly used in bioinformatics. Collaborators: Ruth West, Jeff Burke, Eitan Mendelowitz, Tom Holton, Cheryl Kerfeld, JP Lewis, Ethan Drucker, Weihong Yan, Steve … [Read more...] about Ecce Homology
Biondi vs. Morel
This installation by REMAP's Fabian Wagmister established interactive relations between the processes and developments of science and technology and the daily context in which the residents of Buenos Aires live. In its structure and functionality, the work appeared like a mirror that, in addition to reflecting the habitual, revealed technological structures and their influence on our cultural identity. Buenos Aires Piensa, Secretaria de Cultura---Buenos Aires, Argentina---November 2004. … [Read more...] about Biondi vs. Morel