A Machine
Babyface
Making Meaning With Machines
Time to Compile

Robots and Dance: A Promising Young Alchemy

By A. LaViers
Counts of Mechanical, External Configurations Compared to Computational, Internal Configurations in Natural and Artificial Systems
Center-of-Mass Control for Expressive and Effective Movement in Bipedal Robots
Programmed Improvisation Inspired From Autonomous Humanoids
Breathing With Robots: Notating Performer Strategy, Alongside Choreographer Intent and Audience Observation, In Breath-driven Robotic Dance Performance
An Open Data Infrastructure for Bodily Expressed Emotion Understanding
Modeling the Interactions of Context and Style on Affect in Motion Perception: Stylized Gaits Across Multiple Environmental Contexts
Character Recognition on a Varied Robotic Platforms via a Laban Movement Analysis in Expert and Lay Groups
First Encounters with Robots Through Embodied Observation, Imagined Narrative, and Choreography
Controls and Art
Automatic Sequencing of Ballet Poses: A Formal Approach to Phrase Generation
Toward an Expressive Bipedal Robot: Variable Gait Synthesis and Validation in a Planar Model

Abstractions for Design-by-Humans of Heterogeneous Autonomous Behaviors

Written by A. LaViers, A. Bashiri, Y. Sheng, J. Heddy, and L. Bai
Style-based Robotic Motion in Contemporary Dance Performance
Babyface: Performance and Installation Art Exploring the Feminine Ideal in Gendered Machines

Automation Supporting Prolonged Independent Residence for the Elderly (ASPIRE)

National Science Foundation Award #1528036
Time to Compile: A Performance Installation as Human-Robot Interaction Study Examining Self-Evaluation and Perceived Control Through the Lenses of Movement and Technology Literacy and Valence
Imitation of Human Motion by Low Degree-of-Freedom Simulated Robots and Human Preference for Mappings Driven by Spinal, Arm, and Leg Activity
Ideal Mechanization: Exploring the Machine Metaphor Through Theory and Performance
Laban-Inspired Task-Constrained Expressive, Variable Motion Generation on Aerial Robots
Feasible Stylized Motion: Robotic Manipulator Imitation of a Human Demonstration with Collision Avoidance and Style in Increasingly Cluttered Environments
An Embodied, Platform-invariant Architecture for Connecting High-level Spatial Commands to Platform Articulation
Choreographic and Somatic Approaches for the Development of Expressive Robotic Systems

Can a Robot Do a Trust Fall? Absurdity as a Component of Human Intelligence and Embodiment

By A. LaViers and I. Vidrin
Toward Human-like Teleoperated Robot Motion: Performance and Perception of a Choreography-inspired Method in Static and Dynamic Tasks for Rapid Pose Selection of Articulated Robots
Motion-activated Wearable Robot for Live Dance Performance Investigating the Feminine Cyborg Metaphor

CURTAIN and Time to Compile: A Demonstration of an Experimental Testbed for Human-robot Interaction

Written by C. Cuan, I. Pakrasi, E. Berl, and A. LaViers
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Babyface

Babyface is a project that investigates the use of breath for robot control and responds to feminized tropes around innocence, servitude, cuteness and spectacle. Centering a "cyborg" performer who was designed to be perfect, the work explores tension between humans and machines through original sound, choreography, and interaction with a pair of wearable breath-activated angel wings as well as a 20 foot wide breath-activated installation.

Two people stand inside a blue shipping container. One is wearing a black strap around their midsection and facing the wall; the other is facing this person in a relaxed, explanatory posture.
Babyface by Kate Ladenehim x the RAD Lab on the waterfront in Wellington, NZ as part of the 2020 Performance Arcade. Photos by Colin Edson.
Babyface by Kate Ladenehim x the RAD Lab on the waterfront in Wellington, NZ as part of the 2020 Performance Arcade. Photos by Colin Edson.

Performances

WIP Showing, The RAD Lab, Urbana, IL

DanceNow Festival, Joe's Pub at the Public Theater, New York, NY

The Performance Arcade, Wellington, NZ

The Conference on Research on Choreographic Interfaces (CRCI), Brown University, Providence, RI

MeMoSa, The Movement Lab, Barnard University, New York, NY

Collaborators and Funding

Kate Ladenheim was an artist-in-residence in the lab from 2019-2021. She choreographed and performed the piece and worked alongside lab members Wali Rizvi, Reika McNish, and Amy LaViers to develop the wearable wings and alongside Amy LaViers to develop the installation. We had additional essential help from: ShapeMaster, Inc who fabricated plastic parts for us; Myles Avery who composed the musical score with Kate and provided sound design; Eric Minnick, Myles Avery, and Colin Edson for onsite support; Sam Trubridge for his curation and amazing knot-tying skills; FootNote Dance Company, including performers Olliver Carruthers, Sebastian Geilings, Rosie Tapsell, and Cheyanne Teka; and the New Zealand Embassy for funding.

A darkened image flooded with purple light washing on a wall shows a man wearing thin plastic wings with his arms behind his head gazing up at something out of frame.

`Babyface' is blunt with its spectacle as a pathway to its own subversion. An essential motivating question throughout our process was: how do we get audiences past the initial moment of, “oh my god, it’s a robot on stage!”... Our answer was to fully embrace this moment. If we can first confront audiences with a familiar, predictable stereotype (robot barbie with segmented motion and a fixed smile), we can then reveal the shortcomings of that stereotype (the struggle against aesthetic restriction and the vulnerability that comes with being on display).

from K. Ladenheim and A. LaViers. “Babyface: Performance and Installation Art Exploring the Feminine Ideal in Gendered Machines.” The Art of Human-Robot Interaction: Creative Perspectives from Design and the Arts Topic in Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Section Human-Robot Interaction. D. C. Herath, E. A. Jochum, C. Kroos, D. St-Onge (Eds). 8. 1-21. 2021.

A female performer stands posed with legs spread and left hip popped, her hands pushed down to the floor, wearing clear robotic wings.
Kate Ladenheim performing "Babyface" at the 2019 Dance NOW Festival at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater in New York, NY. Photo credit: Yi-Chun Wu.

Publications

K. Ladenheim, A. LaViers, and C. Maguire. “Breathing With Robots: Notating Performer Strategy, Alongside Choreographer Intent and Audience Observation, In Breath-driven Robotic Dance Performance.” Modeling Visual Aesthetics, Emotion, and Artistic Style J. Wang and R. Adams. (Eds). Springer. 2023.

A. LaViers. “First Encounters with Robots Through Embodied Observation, Imagined Narrative, and Choreography.” Materializing Digital Futures: Touch, Movement, Sound and Vision T. Cinque and J. B. Vincent (Eds). 169-185. 2022.

K. Ladenheim and A. LaViers. “Babyface: Performance and Installation Art Exploring the Feminine Ideal in Gendered Machines.” The Art of Human-Robot Interaction: Creative Perspectives from Design and the Arts Topic in Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Section Human-Robot Interaction. D. C. Herath, E. A. Jochum, C. Kroos, D. St-Onge (Eds). 8. 1-21. 2021.

K. Ladenheim and A. LaViers. “Babyface.” 7th International Conference on Movement and Computing (MOCO). 34. Virtual from Jersey City, NJ. 2020. (Practice Work; Extended Abstract)

K. Ladenheim, R. McNish, W. Rizvi, and A. LaViers. “Motion-activated Wearable Robot for Live Dance Performance Investigating the Feminine Cyborg Metaphor” 15th Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI). 243-251. Virtual from Cambridge, UK. 2020.

Diagram showing robotic wings in flexion, extension, and attached to a person's back.
Diagram showing wearable robotic wings in flexion, extension, and attached to a person's back from K. Ladenheim, R. McNish, W. Rizvi, and A. LaViers. “Motion-activated Wearable Robot for Live Dance Performance Investigating the Feminine Cyborg Metaphor” 15th Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI). 243-251. Virtual from Cambridge, UK. 2020.