Mosho will be used to support a new Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities “Research Cluster” by LAIT founder John Toenjes and University of Illinois Mechanical Engineering Professor Amy Laviers who runs the RAD lab. The title of the cluster is “Understanding Movement Style and Social Interactions Through Participatory Performance: Development of An Interactive Performance Concept for Research On Style Preferences.” The idea is to create a theatrical performance where the audience will participate in interacting with each other and with robots, to research movement styles and how those styles are affected by different types of interaction with other entities, whether human or mechanical.

We are just in the brainstorming and planning stages for this performance. So we held a “mixer” for faculty and students interested in this topic, and who might be interested in getting involved. About 10 people showed up, with a range of interests and talents. We had a wonderful discussion about what this performance might be, and many of the attendees were interested in helping out. We have a range of talents, from coding to story writing to hardware design to music. We’re excited to work with this team and hope to involve more people as well.