Category: current projects

Posted on

Changing Matters

Changing Matters is a project that explores the concept of a playful and abstract virtual representation of oneself. This is achieved through the use of a camera that tracks the movements of the user and translates them onto an avatar. The virtual environment is further enhanced with sound that complements the user’s movements and empowers them with control. Therefore, experience encourages you to experiment with the possibilities of the virtual body’s interaction with the immersive sound and landscape.

The project utilizes SARMotion, a software developed by Florian Bruggisser, along with Unity data that is processed using Max/MSP and Ableton Live for sound generation.

Changing Matters is a graduation project by Lorenz Kleiser (BA Game Design) and Floris Demandt (MA Composition and Theory).

The project will be showcased and can be experienced at the upcoming LabInsights,
May 4th 2023, in the Immersive Arts Space.

Posted on

The Feeling Machine

In his artistic-scientific work, Manuel Flurin Hendry explores the question of artificial emotionality. More precisely: Can the digital recognition and representation of emotions replace that of a human being in film acting?

With the help of the so-called pre-trained Large Language Model (LLM), a speech algorithm, the linguistic simulation was developed. In months of development with Im immersive Arts Space and with the help of our scientific collaborators Norbert Kottmann, Martin Fröhlich and Valentin Huber, Stanley was born. It is a physical mask with which the audience can converse directly in oral language in a museum-like situation. This being will be programmed as Unreal MetaHuman with the Omniverse Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE). Its physical form will be generated with
projection mapping.

“The Feeling Machine” is the PhD thesis of Manuel Hendry, which is part of the PhD program of the Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf and the ZHdK. Since 2022 the project is developed artistically-technologically in the Immersive Arts Space.

Find more information and by now six conversations of Stanley with different people here

Stanley and The Feeling Machine were part of the exhibition “Hallo, Tod! Festival 2023” and on display for a chat in the cemetary Sihlfeld in Zurich.
Read more about it in an article by the Tagesanzeiger

Posted on

NEVO | Neural Volumetric Capture

© Florian Bruggisser, ZHdK 2022.

NEVO is a processing pipeline that combines multiple machine learning models to convert a two-dimensional images of a human into a volumetric animation. With the help of a database containing numerous 3D-models of humans, the algorithm is able to create sketchy virtual humans in 3D. The conversion is fully automatic and can be used to efficiently create sequences of three-dimensional digital humans.

Group members: Florian Bruggisser (lead), Chris Elvis Leisi. Projects: Shifting Realities Associated events: REFRESH X FANTOCHE, LAB Insights