CONATUS
ENGINEERING
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VIDEO ART
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DANCE
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PERFORMANCE ART
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ENGINEERING - VIDEO ART - DANCE - PERFORMANCE ART -
by Seong Won Hwang
“The theme of Conatus was based on Soyoung’s desire to be recognised as a human being, rather than someone who was so often neglected at work and in everyday life due to her illness.”
A description from Seong Won:
Conatus was the collaborative dance project of MoMo Project and the Sports Engineering Lab of Seoul National University (SNU) for the 2023 KIADA. Through the combination of visual presentation of motion capture data and live dancing, Conatus strived to capture the vibrant energy of Soyoung Kim, a 30 year old dancer with cerebral palsy.
The project included two major parts, a 5 minute live dance performance, with a 4 minute motion capture animation in between. As part of a lab that studies human movement, we used a state of the art infrared motion capture system to record Soyoung's dancing. The marker sets and colour schemes that were used in the video are quite similar to what we use in research.
The theme of Conatus was based on Soyoung's desire to be recognised as a human being, rather than someone who was so often neglected at work and in everyday life due to her illness. The marker based animation provides anonymity to Soyoung, and the traces shown represent the impermanence of our movement and its history.
Throughout the project, it was a truly blissful experience to interact with people our lab aims to assist. The best part was the notably visible improvement in Soyoung's motor coordination after intense dance practice over the few months we worked together. Her grip softened when we assisted her down or up staircases, and the trunk sway in her gait. Although we never got the chance to quantitively analyse the change, this sparked my passion to seek a Ph.D in human movement, and completely steered my direction of focus within the field, from the study of healthy people to more applicative, rehabilitation focused topics.
Soyoung's dance performance with projected motion capture animation.
It’s beautiful to see this collaborative work resulting in what seems like such a meaningful experience. How were you involved in this project?
My lab mate Janghwan, and I were in charge of the production of the video used in the live performance. After conceptualising the video with Dr. Jung (Momo dance director), we set up the motion capture environment to suit Soyoung’s dance. Our lab mainly focuses on gait studies, so this meant that we needed to set up a separate area for the motion capture of Soyoung’s dance. After recording and the many hours of labelling the markers that follow motion capture, we taught ourselves how to use Blender (animation software) to produce the video.
Seong Won setting up cameras.
What is the normal application for these markers?
These markers are used to record the 3D position data at high frequencies, and are often used in motion capture animations. In our field of study, we place markers on anatomical landmarks of the human body or points of interest to analyse how people move. Human movement is an immensely complex task that our brains are able to execute in an amazing fashion, and the question of how we are able to accomplish this is still very much unknown. The data from motion capture provides grounds for the quantification of movements, which opens up a lot of possibilities in the study of human movements.
“The marker based animation provides anonymity to Soyoung, and the traces shown represent the impermanence of our movement and its history.”
The data enables the use of an arsenal of analytical tools, ranging from complex nonlinear dynamics to various simulation tools that help researchers infer information that can’t be directly measured, such as the actual mechanical load that joints are subject to.
Development of means that can more accurately assess human movement helps the tracking of rehabilitation, evaluation of assistive devices, and improvements of sports movements.
Our lab works quite frequently with other companies and labs that create assistive devices that help people work together, while also doing research on how human beings control their movements, and how we can apply that knowledge for the betterment of people. Motion analysis is being more incorporated in sports settings as well, and marker based analysis is currently the most widely used method for motion analysis.
SNU motion capture video of Soyoung dancing.
“...it’s an enjoyable and safe way that you can keep yourself physically active, which is important in every stage of your life.”
The world of research into art and music as a tool for well-being is an expanding field but I wondered what your thoughts were on dance and movement in the context of health?
Voluntary involvement is really important when it comes to rehabilitation and health, and I think dancing excels in that area. It has a lot of common traits with sports, where both forms of physical activity induce voluntary involvement, leaves room for creativity, creates a context for the movements, and stimulates community building in the process. It’s also relatively safer than a lot of exercises or sports as well.
Bottom line, it's an enjoyable and safe way that you can keep yourself physically active, which is important in every stage of your life.
And last but not least, on reflection how did this project make you feel?
It was really meaningful and rewarding. Janghwan and I both started our masters program with the intention to contribute in helping other people move better, but we’ve never been able to have first hand experience with how much it can improve. Over the course of the four months we worked together, we could visually see the improvement of walking, balance, and general coordination of her movements, which was really amazing. I can still remember how much less tightly she needed to hold my arm when we went up and down the stairs compared to before. The entire experience of working with someone from the patient population and witnessing their improvements deeply influenced my research focus and perspective on the world, motivating me to begin my PhD in Los Angeles this August.
“...the effort and heart we put into it makes it my proudest work to this date. ”
It was also nice to be working in a completely different context as well. Being in grad school feels like you’re constantly being evaluated and judged for your work, and I’ve felt that there's a certain grading element to it, from the grades of your classes to which journal your paper is going to be published, if your research is good enough to publish at all. Working with arts gave me a different perspective to the process, and helped me recognise the value in actually creating something, even if it may not be perfect. The animation quality is objectively nowhere close to what other professionally trained people would’ve done, but the effort and heart we put into it makes it my proudest work to this date.
With acknowledgements to:
Film Director/Piano: 오재형 Jaehyung Oh
MoMo Dance Director: 정희정 Heejung Jung
Sports Engineering Lab: 황성원 Seong Won Hwang, 안장환 Janghwan Ahn, 안주은 교수 Jooeun Ahn
Welcome SEONG WON!
I’m very excited to see the works of other like minded people in STEM. I’ve been finding more and more people in STEM who also have an artistic side to them, and having a platform and community that focuses on these people is very comforting and motivating at the same time. Keep up the good work fam!
