Workshop Statement

MOCO’15 is the second International Workshop on movement and computing. MOCO aims to gather academics and practitioners interested in the computational study, modeling, representation, segmentation, recognition, classification, or generation of movement information. We welcome research that models movement, technology and computation, and is positioned within emerging interdisciplinary domains between art & science. We invite participants interested in exploring how movement experience can contribute to computational knowledge through movement modeling and representation. The workshop references the challenge of representing embodied movement knowledge within computational models, yet it also celebrates the inherent expression available within movement as a language. While human movement itself focuses on bodily experience, developing computational models for movement requires abstraction and representation of lived embodied cognition. Selecting appropriate models between movement and its rich personal and cultural meanings remains a challenge in movement interaction research. Many fields, including Interaction Design, HCI, Education and Machine Learning have been inspired by recent developments within Neuroscience validating the primacy of movement in cognitive development and human intelligence. This has spawned a growing interest in experiential principles of movement awareness and mindfulness, while simultaneously fueling the need for developing computational models that can describe movement intelligence with greater rigor. This conference seeks to explore an equal and richly nuanced epistemological partnership between movement experience and movement cognition and computational representation.

Duration: Two Days. moco.iat.sfu.ca

• Sarah Fdili Alaoui, SIAT, SFU, Vancouver, Canada  saralaoui.com
• Dr. Thecla Schiphorst is Associate Director and Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. Her background in dance and computing form the basis for her research in embodied interaction, focusing on movement knowledge representation, tangible and wearable technologies, media and digital art, and the aesthetics of interaction. Her research goal is to expand the practical application of embodied theory within Human Computer Interaction. She is a member of the original design team that developed Life Forms, the computer compositional tool for choreography, and collaborated with Merce Cunningham from 1990 to 2005 supporting his creation of new dance with the computer. Thecla has an Interdisciplinary MA under special arrangements in Computing Science and Dance from Simon Fraser University (1993), and a Ph.D. (2008) from the School of Computing at the University of Plymouth.Thecla Schiphorst is the recipient of the 1998 PetroCanada Award in New Media, a biennial award presented to a Canadian Artist for their contribution to innovation in art & technology in Canada. Her media art installations have been exhibited internationally in Europe, Canada, the United States and Asia in many venues including Ars Electronica, the Dutch Electronic Arts Festival (DEAF), Future Physical, Siggraph, the Wexner Centre for the Arts, the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris, and the London ICA. Thecla Schiphorst leads the whisper[s] research group an acronym for: wearable, handheld, intimate, sensory, personal, expressive, responsive systems, and is the Director of MovingStories: Digital Tools for Movement, Meaning and Interaction, a SSHRC funded International Institutional Research Partnership.
• Philippe Pasquier (FR/CA) is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Chair at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology. He is both a scientist specialized in artificial intelligence and a multi-disciplinary artist. His contributions range from theoretical research in artificial intelligence, multi-agent systems and machine learning to applied artistic research and practice in digital art, computer music, and generative art. Philippe is the Chair and investigator of the AAAI series of international workshop on Musical Metacreation (MUME), the MUME-WE concerts series and the International workshop on Movement and Computation (MOCO). He has coauthored over 100 peer-reviewed contributions.
• Frederic Bevilacqua, Ircam, Paris, France
• Jules Françoise, Postdoctoral Researcher, Ircam, Paris, France  julesfrancoise.com