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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Programmed Improvisation Inspired From Autonomous Humanoids

Citation: A. LaViers. “Programmed Improvisation Inspired From Autonomous Humanoids.” 513-526, Chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Improvisation in Dance. V. Midgelow (Ed.) Oxford University Press. 2019.

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Abstract: This essay outlines the use of the mathematical machinery used to program automated systems as a way to describe a form of structured improvisation. Examples of such automated systems range from simple devices like a remote control to complex automation governing the status of a high-security building. The essay points out the connection of the mathematics governing these systems to the movements induced in users of such automated systems and will delve into how such objects describe a whole class of possible movement sequences, or choices, in a given structured improvisation. In a world where such programmed devices are ubiquitous, this type of exploration from the arts is essential in understanding how these devices are changing our lives.

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Book cover featuring an image of a man jumping with both legs in attitude and grabbing the back of his head, looking down.