Hope Demonstration Presentation

A Glance into the Future

Here at The Historical Movement Archive and Studio we are making strides towards bringing anitiquated movement systems into a world built for the future. A future where researchers, teachers, historians, and movement artists can come together from anywhere in the world to connect, create, and share their expertise in a space designed specifically for the research, preservation, and archival of historical martial arts and historical dance. 

Austin Birch Asks:

Q: How did this research idea begin?

A: The origins of this research project began with a meeting in 2015 at the Folger Shakespeare Library with Dr. Michael Witmore and Rick Davis, now Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at George Mason University.

I presented the idea of using emerging motion capture technologies to Research, Preserve, and Archive historical martial arts and historical dance.

We decided to create a test research project using a historical movement work: Giacomo de Grassi’s treatise of 1570, titled Ragione di adoprar sicuramente l’Arme.
Englished by I. G. Gentleman in 1594.

And so my journey began…

Lorraine Ressegger Sloan Asks:

Q: What is historical movement research?

A: Hundreds of antiquarian movement works have been left to us in the form of books, treatises, and manuscripts.

It is the work of historical movement scholars and researchers who endeavor to unlock the knowledge contained within these words and images.

It is an arduous task to research and understand these historical movement techniques and systems of movement.

It takes an uncommon dedication to the rigorous physical development of skill through training and building an understanding in the body.

Eric Fredricksen Asks:

Q: What is the Historical movement Archive?

A: The Historical Movement Archive combines many academic and movement disciplines into one research program and facility.

This multi-faceted research program is the result of a collaboration involving national and international, cultural and educational institutions.

The Historical Movement Archive is dedicated to the research, analysis, and preservation of previously unavailable movement knowledge, and to making that knowledge available to researchers, teachers, historians, and movement artists around the world. This broad range of movement knowledge will include historical martial arts, historical dance, historical training principles, cultural dance and movement traditions.

The Historical Movement Archive is dedicated to the preservation of cultural performance traditions. This broad range of performance traditions will include classical music in performance, classical opera, classical theater, classical ballet, classical dance, and cultural performance traditions.

The Historical Movement Archive Research and Training Program is the collective endeavor of an international group of historical movement scholars, teachers, and performers who are working together to preserve their life’s work in historical and cultural movement art forms, using state-of-the-art motion capture technology, volumetric capture technology, interactive serious gaming platforms, and emerging 3D teaching, research, and live performance technologies.

Imagine the history of human movement being analyzed using the highest standards of research, contributing to the advancement of our understanding of biomechanics, kinesthetics, proprioception, and the science of historical and cultural movement. This work will create new fields of research, such as Kinesthetic Anthropology and Kinesthetic Relativity.

The Historical Movement Archive Research Library will be created to serve as a research facility and a digital 3D online library where the body of digitized historical and cultural movement knowledge would be preserved.

The Historical Movement Archive Research and Training Program and Research Library involve the collaboration of many national and international cultural and educational institutions, creating an interdisciplinarity of movement researchers, teachers, performance artists, and historians. This work is an international effort of many, dedicated to preserve the cultural and historical movement heritage of our diverse societies.

Jonathan Howell Asks:

Q: How do you invision the – Historical Movement Archive’s Research and Training Program?

A: Historical movement works are selected for research and digitized for research purposes in collaboration with the Folger Shakespeare Library, Harvard Library, Columbia University Library, Princeton University Library, the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, and other national and international research libraries.The Historical Movement Archive is developing a program to coordinate with national and international libraries to create digital reproductions of primary source materials.

The Giacomo de Grassi treatise of 1570/1594 is the first of a series of Elizabethan and Jacobean historical movement works to be digitized and incorporated into movement research applications.

Digital Movement Research Applications are created at the Historical Movement Archive in collaboration with national and international historicaland cultural movement researchers. The research applications contain image, text, vocal, video, and 3D files. The digitized historical works are integrated into the research applications using Adobe InDesign, online publishing applications, and Unity, a real-time cross-platform 2D, 3D, virtual reality, and augmented reality game development engine.

Translation, text analysis, artwork analysis, and voice-over narration are commissioned in a collaboration that would be established with national and international educational institutions, departments of modern and classical languages, and departments of history of art and architecture.

The Research Applications are used by the international movement community to communicate, collaborate in their research, translate, and physically train, in the arduous task of recreating and mastering the historical and cultural movement that will be motion captured, processed, analyzed, and archived. This is where the painstaking physical research and training takes place on a daily basis.

The Historical Movement Archive’s Research and Training Program is the collective endeavor of an international group of historical and cultural movement scholars, teachers, and performers who are working together to preserve their life’s work in historical and cultural movement art forms.

We have put into place an International Research and Training Program for the Historical Movement Archive, which includes weekly and bi-monthly international online broadcast research work sessions and biannual in-house research get-togethers, workshops, lectures, symposiums, and roundtables hosted in different countries. Many of these live events will be hosted by national and international educational institutions, adding to the intellectual and international experience of the university family.

The International Research and Training Program has developed and put into place a Professional Research Process and Methodology for investigating historical and cultural movement.

Ramon Martinez Asks:

Q: Could you show us an example of a Historical Movement Research Application?

A: When the historical movement is mastered by the international researchers and artists, it is ready to be motion captured and volumetric captured. The test Research and Training Projects of Giacomo de Grassi’s treatise and the historical dance Les Bouffons, in Orchésographie by Thoinot Arbeau, are now ready to be motion captured, analyzed, studied, and archived.

The digitized 3D historical and cultural movement motion capture data and volumetric capture data is processed and reworked as 3D materials, which are updated into the research applications. Depending on the complexity of the movement system, this research process may take years.

The historical and cultural movement is preserved in raw digital form. The digitized movement is analyzed using the highest standards of research in a collaboration that would be established with national and international educational institutions and the College of Education and Human Development, College of Health and Human Services, and institutions dedicated to the study of human movement.

The core of this research program is the development of research tools that assist in the scientific method applied to digitized historical and cultural movement.

The Historical Movement Archive’s research information and data are continually updated on our research applications using secure Amazon Cloud and Web Services which works in conjunction with our server and prototype archive computer (DATA). We have also purchased and put together our full-time rendering computer (DAISY). The preparation of 3D materials can take weeks to render out and implement. We have purchased and put together a prototype server (HAL), that will contain the digital host destination for the Hope Bear Garden 3D interactive online research environment.

Simon Manns Asks:

Q: How were you able to recreate and capture historical movement?

A: In 2016, we devoted seven months of movement research and training to motion capture a series of historical movement sequences from Giacomo de Grassi’s treatise.

By this point, we had accomplished our first mandate or proof from our meeting in 2015. We had taken words and images from a historical work, and through research and reconstruction, digitized that historical movement and preserved it in a three dimensional digital form.

Michael Nephew Asks:

Q: What are the difficulties that you have encountered in trying to accurately capture historical and cultural movement?

A: Our first efforts in trying to motion capture historical movement began more than a decade ago, at the Niel Adams Continuity Studio, in New York City.

The historical movement is captured and preserved in a raw digital form.
The digitized motion capture data is processed and reworked as 3D materials.

One of the challenges of acurately capturing historical movement is the amount of time dedicated to processing the raw motion capture data.

Secondly, is finding a motion capture system that can accurately track and recreate the complexities found in the historical and cultural use of the hands and feet.

In 2017 – we used a motion capture suit that utilizes an Inertial Motion Capture System.
This Cultural Movement motion capture clip is of the Smoke Dance performed by Michael Nephew.

The motion capture sequences presented in the video demonstration illustrate the technical difficulties we face in trying to capture and preserve the intricate details of historical and cultural movement.

The technology to accuratetly capture Historical and Cultural movement has yet to be developed.

Jeannette Martinez Asks:

Q: What do you do with the digitized historical movement?

A: This is where we engage an entirely different set of skills, where the technical research and development begins.

I had the honor of serving as a Visiting Scholar in Residence at George Mason University, and set up shop at the Virginia Serious Game Institute on the university’s Manassas campus.

I was provided with the tools to interact and work with programmers and digital artists who helped me to implement these research ideas and develop them into a digital reality.

Hilde Osstenson Asks:

Q: What kind of research tools did you develop as a Visiting Scholar in Residence?

A: We designed, built, and implemented a studio avatar that could inhabit the historical movement sequences we were capturing and preserving with wireless motion capture suits.

We created our own HMA 3D viewer, a web application that allows a user to display historical and cultural movement in 3D on the web, to be viewed on any mobile browser, desktop browser, and on VR headsets, AR headsets and smart glasses.

At this point – by 2019 – we had accomplished our second mandate or proof.

We had taken digitized historical and cultural movement and created the research tools to preserve this movement knowledge in 3D, archive it, and make it accessible online.

Scott Witt Asks:

Q: How do you intend to organize the different movement systems in the digital world?

A: We have applied the same research process that we have used for Historical and Cultural movement, to integrate the historical record in text and images with archaeological excavation evidence, in order to recreate a digital reconstruction of a sixteenth century playhouse called the Hope Bear Garden.

J.P Asks:

Q: What was the purpose behind building a digital replica of a sixteenth century playhouse?

A: ….Imagine the digital Hope Bear Garden playhouse being the digital host destination for movement professionals to get together as HMA studio avatars or volumetric generated avatars using simple volumetric capture research studio setups and holoportation.

Researchers meet online within the HopeBear Garden 3D interactive virtual research environment and exchange high-end movement research and performance information from different parts of the world….

Robert Asks:

Q: Where are you now with the development of these research tools?

A: At this point (by the end of June 2023) we have accomplished the last mandate or proof of concept.

We have a process and methodology for historical and cultural movement research and can demonstrate how to build digital tools that use these emerging technologies.

The historical movement community will be able to download and install the Historical Movement Archive’s research application that contains these research tools.

Research participants can log on and enter the digital Hope Bear Garden research game environment as HMA studio generated avatars using any computer, smart phone, tablet, or augmented reality and virtual reality device.

They can interact within the Hope Bear Garden in three dimensions as if they were in a movement studio, a classroom, or witnessing a live performance.

Motion capture and volumetric capture technologies allow us to take historical and cultural movement and preserve it in a three-dimensional digital form.

For the first time in history, modern technology offers the ability to preserve historical movement depicted in antiquarian books and manuscripts.

Using motion capture and volumetric capture technologies, we can recreate and interpret this historical and cultural movement in digital form, so that it can be preserved, studied, archived, and shared all over the world.

All the digital tools that were ideas and concepts presented a little more than seven years ago, are now ready to be implemented into a research program.

Peppe Ostensson Asks:

Q: What did you hope to accomplish while you were a Visiting Scholar in Residence?

A: The purpose of my work as a Visiting Scholar in Residence was to provide the proof that we can create a process and methodology for this research and to demonstrate how we can build digital tools that utilize these emerging technologies.

Q: How do you invision the – Historical Movement Archive Studio?

A: The Historical Movement Archive Studio is dedicated to research, training, teaching, and performance. The studio will serve as an ongoing practical forum for researchers, master teachers, movement artists, and performance artists to get together, work, and share in the wealth and depth of knowledge found in historical and cultural movement traditions from around the world.

The Historical Movement Archive Motion Capture Studio will be created to serve as a research facility where the movement art forms of the past and present can be explored and preserved through state-of-the-art motion capture and volumetric capture technology.

The Historical Movement Archive Research and Performance Facility will develop the technical ability to serve as an online 3D broadcast and live performance space. Imagine for a moment that over the next few years we will have the technical ability to allow entire performances in classical theater, opera, ballet, music, and cultural dance to be preserved in a three-dimensional digital form, to be enjoyed by millions using an immersive 3D live performance and archive platform.

Historical movement research can be showcased and explored in 3D performances, lectures, classes, workshops, and other cultural events. The development of such a technology can help to preserve the cultural heritage of a society and have that art and culture shared with millions around the world. This is the next stage of development for state-of-the-art motion capture technology, volumetric capture, interactive serious gaming platforms, and emerging 3D teaching, research, and live performance technologies.

The participants in the Historical Movement Archive Studio Research and Performance Facility will have the opportunity to work together to celebrate and encourage an international exchange of ideas in a physical journey – creating a living library of researchers, master teachers, and movement artists through the development of skill, scholarship, technique, and process.

The Historical Movement Archive Studio Research and Performance Facility would create a home for this work.

Marie-Heleen Asks:

Q: How do you plan to turn this playhouse into a kind of metaverse for research?

A: We have built and tested This.. prototype digital host game environment and portal that my colleagues call the Bardaverse.

We have tested the build with the help of my international colleagues by entering the online digital portal and interacting from ten different countries at once.

The Historical Movement Archive will develop the technical process and methodologies needed for colleagues to build and implement small volumetric capture, holoportation, and 3D broadcast systems. Developers build mixed reality research applications that associate and render 3D holographic research and performance content. Research applications enable presence and shared experiences from anywhere, in any device. Research colleagues connect and co-create in real time as you explore and share movement research content.

This is just the beginning stage of a remarkable interactive research tool.

Catherine Asks:

Q: What do you see in the future for this research program?

A: That is the most exciting part of it all!

Consider the opportunities presented by recent advances in artificial intelligence. There is a whole AI or artificial intelligence aspect to all of this.

Let’s say for a moment that a motion capture or volumetric capture studio can be put together that is dedicated to capturing and archiving these historical movement systems. Let’s say we take (as an example) Giacomo de Grassi’s footwork system and digitize that movement research in all its complexity. Hundreds of thousands of possible footwork sequences.

We then engage this vast amount of movement data into the reconstruction process that we have developed for historical movement.

To understand this research process, we need to look at the historical structure of movement.

The best comparison is the structure of language, and how language is structured, categorized and analyzed. Cultural and historical systems of movement can be looked at in a very similar structural manner.

Imagine the history of human movement being analyzed using the highest standards of research, integrating the innovations of artificial intelligence applied to the digitized historical and cultural language of movement.

By engaging these emerging technologies with artificial intelligence, we have the opportunity to significantly contribute to the advancement of our understanding of biomechanics, kinesthetics, proprioception, and the science of historical and cultural movement.

This work will create new fields of research, such as Kinesthetic Anthropology and Kinesthetic Relativity.

It is a “Gutenberg moment” for historical movement and movement research.