Research Program Interdisciplinarity

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Historical movement works are selected for research and digitized for research purposes in collaboration with the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Bodleian Library, the Reading Room at the British Museum, the Morgan Library, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 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 historical and 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, the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, and the Department of History and Art History.

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 has developed its own 3D viewer, a web application that allows a user to view models and movement sequences in 3D. The HMA 3D viewer is based on WebGL, VR, and AR technologies that allow the HMA to display historical and cultural movement in 3D on the web, to be viewed on any mobile browser, desktop browser, VR headset, AR headset or smart glasses.

The downloadable digital research applications help the international movement community collaborate in the studio movement research using a studio space, a computer, monitor, web camera, and teleconferencing technologies. We are now in our sixth year of our international online collaborative research efforts.

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 at National and International Educational Institutions, adding to the intellectual and international experience of the university family.

The Historical Movement Archive’s International Research and Training Program over the last six years has developed and put into place a Professional Research Process and Methodology for investigating historical and cultural movement.

Listed are several representatives of the movement disciplines within the HMA’s Research and Training Program:

Historical Dance – Catherine Turocy – Artistic Director – The New York Baroque Dance Company – New York

Historical Martial Arts – Maestro Ramon Martinez, Maestro Jeannette Martinez – Martinez Academy of Arms – New Jersey

Zulu Dance and Martial Movement – Dr. Marie-Heleen Coetzee – Professor – University of Pretoria – South Africa

Native American Dance and Cultural Dance Traditions – Michael Nephew – Virginia

Dance Performance and Cultural Movement Principles – Peppe Ostensson – Hilde Veronica Ostensson – Sweden

Cultural and Historical Training Principles – Isabelle Anderson – Australia

Contemporary Movement Traditions – Adeoye Mabior Mabogunje – Chicago

Listed are several historical movement treatises that are being prepared for volumetric capture in 2022 by the HMA’s Research and Training Program:

Ragione di adoprar sicuramente l’Arme – Giacomo de Grassi – 1570

Giacomo di Grassi his True arte of defence plainlie teaching – Giacomo de Grassi – Englished by I.G. gentleman – 1594

Orchesographie par Thoinot Arbeau – 1588 – Reimpression par Laure Fonta – 1888

Orchesography by Thoinot Arbeau – Translated from the Original Edition by Cyril Beaumont – 1925

Choregraphie: Ou L’art De Decrire La Dance Par Caracteres Figures et Signes Desmonstratifs – Par M. Feuillet – 1700 / 1713

Orchesography or, The Art of Dancing by Characters and Demonstrative Figures – Translation from the French by John Weaver – 1706

Albrecht Durers Fechtbuch – Albrecht Durer – 1512 Opera Nova Art Dell Armi – Achille Marozzo – 1536 / 1550 / 1568 + Presa system (pages 173 – 195)

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 re-worked 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 that work 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.

The Historical Movement Archive Digital Library will be a collaboration that would be established with National and International Educational Institutions, and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. I believe this work will result in the development of a 3D online library where the body of digitized historical and cultural movement knowledge would be preserved. University Library Systems and Special Collections offer many opportunities in using modern technologies to archive historical and cultural movement research and performance.

The Historical Movement Archive is developing a robust Interdisciplinary Internship Program (IIP). The Historical Movement Archive’s Internship Program would involve collaborations with National and International Educational Institutions, the College of Visual and Performing Arts, Education and Human Development, Health and Human Services, Humanities and Social Sciences, and the College of Engineering and Computing.

The Historical Movement Archive’s Research and Development Program will be a collaboration that would be established with National and International Educational Institutions, and the College of Engineering and Computing.

My work as Visiting Scholar in Residence at George Mason University has allowed me to begin the research and development of the Historical Movement Archive’s prototype 3D Digital Research, Performance, and Archive Platform.

The Historical Movement Archive’s research and development of the 3D Digital Research, Performance, and Archive Platform (DRPAP) will focus on five main research and development areas:

Motion capture and volumetric capture technologies to accurately record the intricate details of historical and cultural movement.

Research tools for historical and cultural movement to download and easily incorporate into digital movement research applications.

Analytical tools to assist in the scientific method applied to digitized historical and cultural movement. The core of this research program is to establish new fields of study, such as Kinesthetic Anthropology and the study of Kinesthetic Relativity.

Advanced digital presentation and archiving technologies to preserve 3D historical and cultural movement knowledge.

Live broadcast and emerging augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality technologies to teach, research, gather together, and perform on-line in 3D, using holographic sharing, visualization, and holoportation.

The Historical Movement Archive’s Research and Development will reach out to build collaborations with a number of national and international industry leaders of technology, in our efforts to develop and implement the 3D Digital Research, Performance, and Archive Platform. Examples include Microsoft, Amazon, Adobe, Vicon, Qualisys, Perception Neuron, OptiTrack, Autodesk, Unity/WETA Digital, and Unreal Engine.

National Research and Development Program

The Sword and the Pen’s National Research and Development Program would involve collaborations with a number of regional and national educational institutions. An example is the Historical Movement Archive’s research program at George Mason University.

National Research and Performance Program

The Sword and the Pen’s National Research and Performance Program would involve collaborations with a number of cultural institutions in our efforts to design, put together, and implement cultural research and performance projects. Examples include the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, the National Opera, the Washington Ballet, the American College Theater Festival, the American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

International Research and Development Program

The Sword and the Pen’s International Research and Development Program would involve collaborations with a number of international educational institutions. An example is the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

International Research and Performance Program

The Sword and the Pen’s International Research and Performance Program would involve efforts to design, put together, and implement cultural research and performance collaborations with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, and the 175 embassies, ambassador residences, and international cultural centers. The Historical Movement Archive is perfectly situated in a region that can easily reach out and work with cultural attachés from around the world.