The Implicit Language of Our Bodies: Developing Immersive Technologies to Transfer Embodied Experiences

While much of how we interact with the world is grounded in the body, embodied forms of knowledge have received little attention in research and practice. The inherent difficulty in communicating embodied experiences, and the paucity of tools to do so, poses a significant barrier to sharing it—a problem which is only exacerbated by our increasingly digital and disembodied world. Here, we will develop immersive technologies to directly transfer embodied experiences. Working with the Center for Circus Arts Research, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer (CRITAC), we will study embodied experiences in circus acrobats, and how technological innovation may help in research, education and creation within circus. We will bring together circus artists, neuroscientists, designers and engineers to co-design immersive technologies, studying both the impact of the collaborative process on participants and the ability of the resulting technologies to convey embodied knowledge. The research findings and resulting technological tools will allow CRITAC to integrate embodied knowledge into circus research and education, and will help the circus arts adjust to the new creative demands of the digital era.

Faculty Supervisor:

Stefanie Blain-Moraes;Simone Dalla Bella

Student:

Partner:

École nationale de cirque (Centre de recherche, d‘innovation et de transfert en arts du cirque)

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Entertainment and Media; Technology; Social Innovation

University:

McGill University

Program: