Project specialist, expert in fillowing areas: real-time 3D computer graphics, multi-view geometry, motion capture, IPTV and DRM services.

Jan Burianek works in Visual Connection as project specialist and sales project manager since 2006. His professional interests are focused on 3D Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, Numerical mathematics, Artificial Intelligence, Pattern Recognition, Statistics, Programming (C/C++/Java/Perl/Matlab), Internet, Multimedia.

He has been elected as “Raising Star in e-media”, organized by British Council, English Embassy and Tony Blair, 2004-2005 London. He received the SAZKA ARENA Golden Medal 2004, given to the most professional suppliers in the project.

He has been teaching lots of seminars and lectures and is the author of many publications.

Jan Burianek's workshop

Optical motion capture system VICON

Stereoscopic 3D viewing withouth glasses? It is not dream, it is reality. Autostereoscopic principles, live-demo system SpatialView. Tutorial about basic principles of stereoscopic movie capturing.

Software Designer,Lighting & Scenic Designer,Interaction Designer, Machine Designer,Media Artist

Prof. Louis-Philippe Demers,

School of Art, Design and Media

Interaction and Entertainment Research Centre

Nanyang Technological University.

Louis-Philippe Demers combines several profiles: Artist, Freelance Designer, Professor, Researcher and Entrepreneur. He is a multidisciplinary artist using machines as media. He worked on the conception and production of several large-scale interactive robotic installations, so far realizing more than 225 machines. His robotics works could be found in theatre, opera, subway stations, art museums, science museums, music events and trade shows. As a freelance designer, he develops, conceives and realizes interactive systems. He also acts as stage, lighting and exhibit designer as well as a consultant for the integration of technology in the arts. His projects are exhibited and used in museums, festivals, corporate events and public spaces. Since 1988, he participated in more than seventy artistic and stage productions. He has collaborated with several recognised artists including: Bill Vorn, Michael Saup, Garry Stewart, Art Zoyd, Michael Simon, Christian Möller, Stelarc, Thecla Schiphorst, Robert Lepage, Peter Gabriel and Le Cirque du Soleil.

His works, installations, performances and researches on the application of the computer in the arts have been primed with several prizes and featured at major international festivals and venues such as Lille 2004, Expo 92, Expo 2000, Sonambiente, ISEA, SIGGRAPH and Sonar. He received three Interactive Kunst prizes Ars Electronica, the Distinction of Prix 96 and two further mentions with collaborative works. He also received a honourable mention in digital musics for 2005. He received the first prize of artificial life Vida 2.0 and the prize for Interactive Lighting at Lightforms 98. His latest work, Devolution, received six prizes in 2006 including the Ruby Innovation award in South Australia, Outstanding Performance from Australian Dance Awards and two Helpmann Awards, the Australian equivalent of the Broadway’s Tony.

He combines post-graduate studies in computer science, education in media arts and lighting design for the stage. He was intern then artist in residence at the Media Arts section of the renowned Banff Centre after completing a year of doctoral studies in robotics at McGill University. From 1994 to 1998, he was the president of Kunst Macchina Production Company; a group specialized in the commercialization and the R&D of software solutions for the entertainment. Kunst Macchina did manage to establish itself as the new generation of computer control for the stage.

Demers frequently gives workshops and lectures, he has also curated artistic event and organized several colloquiums. From 2001 to 2005, Louis-Philippe Demers was a Professor of Digital Media and Exhibit Design at the Hochschule fuer Gestaltung, the academic institution affiliated to the world renowned ZKM (Zentrum fuer Kunst und Medientechnologie) in Karlsruhe (Germany). In late 2006, Demers joined the Interaction and Entertainment Research Centre (IERC) of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) as a Principal Investigator and Associate Professor.

Louis Philippe Demers' workshop

On 20th and 22nd of June

STAGING ROBOTS

This section of the workshop will explore real life scenarios of bringing robots on the stage and into public spaces. By investigating previous works and historical background about robotic art, we will define the true challenges of bringing life robots. Beyond the animated figures of the computer screen, we will look closely in the difference of real and virtual words. Both realms possess intrinsic characteristics that need to be empowered.

Motion Capture is one of the many possible solutions when it comes to manipulate a robot. We will then define and discuss its application to live robotics. Prior to this, the group will get a basic understanding of “experimental animatronics” and ways into bridging artificial and real worlds. We will address the complementarities of mechanical constructions and their impact in motion control.

Topics:

Robotic Art

Historical Survey

Stage Robotics

Installation Robotics

Theme Parks

Modern Artificial Intelligence

Case Studies:

Devolution (2006) – Dance and Robotics

ShockHeaded Peter (200) – Musical

Armageddon (2004) – Operetta and live music

L”Assemblee (2001) – Robotic Performance

Themes about each case studies.

Working with directors

Concept and development

Rehearsals, programming, iterations and prototypes

Reliability, Repeatability and Security

Robotics: mechanics, control and programming:

Mechanics

Power

Comparison of solutions

Mechanical constructions

Real life vs Virtual life

Comparison of analog and digital worlds

Programming

Strategies

Systems

Operators

MoCap, Teach Pendants, models, animations.

Stelarc is a performance artist who has visually probed and acoustically amplified his body. He has made 3 films of the inside of his body- probing two metres of space into his lungs, stomach and colon. Between 1976-1988 he completed 25 body suspension performances with hooks into the skin. He has used medical instruments, prosthetics, robotics, Virtual Reality systems, the Internet and biotechnology to explore alternate, intimate and involuntary interfaces with the body. He has performed with a THIRD HAND, a VIRTUAL ARM, a STOMACH SCULPTURE and EXOSKELETON, a 6-legged walking robot. His FRACTAL FLESH, PING BODY and PARASITE performances explored involuntary, remote and internet choreography of the body with electrical stimulation of the muscles. MOVATAR is an inverse motion capture system where an avatar can perform in the physical world by accessing and actuating a host body. He is presently attempting to surgically construct an EXTRA EAR. His PROSTHETIC HEAD project involves an avatar which speaks to the person who interrogates it- an embodied conversational agent with real-time lip syncing and facial expression. The MUSCLE MACHINE is a 6-legged walking machine completed in 2003, actuated by pneumatic rubber muscles

In 1995 Stelarc received a three year Fellowship from The Visual Arts/ Craft Board, The Australia Council and in 2004 was awarded a two year New Media Arts Fellowship. In 1997 he was appointed Honorary Professor of Art and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. He was Artist-In-Residence for Hamburg City in 1998. In 2000 he was awarded an Honorary Degree of Laws by Monash University. He has completed Visiting Artist positions in Art and Technology, at the Faculty of Art and Design at Ohio State University in Columbus in 2002, 2003 & 2004. He has been Principal Research Fellow in the Performance Arts Digital Research Unit and a Visiting Professor at The Nottingham Trent University, UK. He has recently been appointed as Chair in Performance, School of Arts, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK and Senior Research Fellow at the MARCS Lab at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. His art is represented by the Sherman Galleries in Sydney.

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http://www.stelarc.va.com.au

Stelarc's workshop

On 21st of june 2008

CHIMERIC ARCHITECTURES MECHANICALLY, ELECTRONICALLY & SURGICALLY AUGMENTING THE BODY IN PERFORMANCE

The presentation and workshop will explore and provoke alternate possibilities for body performance by presenting ideas, images, animations and video clips of the artist’s projects. In addition to improvising, there has been an interest in the automated and the involuntary, coupling muscles and machines in alternate and hybrid choreographies.

In past performances the artist has amplified his body signals, extended his body with mechanical attachments, translated his human bipedal gait with 6-legged walking robots and performed with real-time motion capture with a virtual arm and a virtual body.

Recent projects include the Prosthetic Head, the Walking Head and the Partial Head- digital, mechanical and tissue culture constructs of the human.

There has been an exploration of involuntary body movement and remotely activating the body using a computer controlled muscle stimulation system. This has effectively resulted in “inverse motion capture” where an artificial entity can access a surrogate human body and perform with it in the physical world. The body experiences itself as both a possessed and performing body with a split physiology.

Volunteers can be wired up to experience the muscle stimulation and the resulting involuntary limb motion.

He will also demonstrate his Prosthetic Head project which is an artificial agent that speaks to the person that interrogates it. Recently the embodied conversational agent has developed an extended data base, more creative capabilities and can now head track the user in the installation space.

And the artist will present his Extra Ear: Ear on Arm project, a surgically constructed and stem cell grown ear on his arm. An additional organ of the body that will be publicly accessible over the internet to people in other places.

Photos:

Skin for Prosthetic Head © Barrett Fox

Extra ear: Ear on Arm © Nina Sellars

Amplified Body, Laser eyes & Third Hand: © Takatoshi Shinoda