LuminAI: A Performance Collaboration of Dance and AI
Kennesaw State University Department of Dance, in collaboration with Georgia Institute of Technology, presented 鈥淟uminAI: A Performance Collaboration of Dance and AI,鈥� the first time that artificial intelligence 鈥� in the form of an avatar projected onto a screen 鈥� improvised movement with human dance partners.
Using complex open pose software, the agent first segments users鈥� motion into gestures. After learning the gestures, the agent reasons about them using two different kinds of learning knowledge. The agent then uses this new knowledge to choose a relevant response to display or, in this case, to perform. In essence, the avatar is improvising alongside the human dancer. In real time, the avatar reacts and plays off human movements to determine its own movements.
Al Consciousness Theoretical Framework: Charting a Path toward General Machine Intelligence
Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have achieved human-scale speed and
accuracy for many tasks, including human speech. Current systems do not need to be
conscious to recognize patterns and classify them or to mimic human linguistic skills
(e.g., ChatGPT).
However, for AI to advance to the next level, it needs to develop capabilities such
as metathinking, creativity, empathy, and free will. This research contends that such
a paradigm shift is possible through a fundamental change in the state of artificial
intelligence toward consciousness, similar to what took place for humans through evolution.
To that end, it proposes that consciousness in AI is an emergent phenomenon that primordially
appears when two machines co-create their own language (creativity) through which
they can recall and communicate their internal state of time-varying symbol manipulation
(metathinking). They must be able to repeatedly and verifiably use this newly developed
language to form agreements and accomplish tasks outside of their training and purpose
(free will). Also, because, in the proposed view, consciousness arises from the communication
of inner states, it leads to empathic capabilities in machines, as empathy is the
ability of one conscious entity to recreate the internal states of another entity
within itself.
The most important application of our theory is in deterministically detecting consciousness in machines. Next, it charts a possible path toward creating general machine intelligence through conscious AI.
Laura Boman
Shaping Healthier, Smarter Consumer Choices
My research explores how the spaces around us鈥攕uch as restaurants, grocery stores, and retail environments鈥攁ffect the way we think, feel, and make decisions. I focus on elements like lighting, music, and smells to understand how they influence what and how much people eat, as well as their overall shopping experience. In a world where unhealthy eating habits, food waste, and overconsumption are growing concerns, my work helps businesses create environments that encourage healthier choices without sacrificing customer enjoyment.
By identifying how these environmental factors shape consumer behavior, my research offers practical solutions to some of today鈥檚 biggest public health and business challenges. Restaurants and retailers can use these insights to design spaces that promote healthier eating, while policymakers can develop strategies to encourage better food choices. Over time, this research has the potential to create healthier communities and improve consumer well-being, all while helping businesses enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. By bridging psychology and marketing, my work contributes to a future where companies can be both profitable and socially responsible.
By understanding how environmental cues shape behavior, businesses can now create
spaces that support responsible consumption while driving success. My research is
helping build a future where businesses thrive while promoting consumer well-being.
Carlos Kelly
Ready Player Juan
Ready Player Juan is a video game that challenges narrow ways of seeing Latines to
position Latines and our embodied/lived experiences as a tool to educate and challenge
white majorities (who have the biggest say in how marginalized communities exist in
media) and other groups of people to value and see the realities we experience as
Latines. I utilize auto-ethnography to tell my stories that combat narrow discourse
of who Latines are and I combine them with in-depth and interdisciplinary research
to create new theory, new ways of seeing.
Video games are already the world's number one entertainment choice and US Latines are the biggest ethnic consumer of video games in the US. We deserve to have stories told about our communities that do not reflect the biases of uninformed, majority white developers. Instead, we should build writing teams that invite Latines and other POC to be involved in the creative processes of building a storyworld and narrative.
Sergio Figueiredo
Rhetoric in the Metaverse
Alongside Jeffrey Greene, I am working on a book project that focuses on an ethic of care approach to developing the metaverse, addressing the historical development of 鈥渢he metaverse鈥� as a concept, including how the concept has been discussed in other terms.
The book addresses the role of entertainment industries in the development of metaverse
technologies in the context of their predecessors as a research and development area
supporting economic growth, and social and cultural development, while also speculating
on the possibilities for integrating these technologies and virtual environments into
educational institutions; this section deals in particular with possibilities in higher
education and how those possibilities might filter into primary and secondary educational
institutions.
Finally, the book will also address how iterations of 鈥渕etaverse鈥� might support healthy community development and how we might be used to develop and build more productive and generative social connections and interactions in ways that avoid the pitfalls of existing social media platforms (e.g., X, Facebook, etc.).
Emily Kitchens
Embodiment Teaching Principles
As a professor and practitioner of acting, Emily Kitchens is interested in the craft of the actor as a creative art form, versus solely as an interpretive art form. The actor is often considered as would be a paintbrush in a painter鈥檚 painting: a tool in a director's vision. Acting can carry emotional baggage for being at its best a fame and fortune rise to stardom public validation, and at its worst a psychological and physiological trauma inducer. Emily Kitchens is pursuing harm reduction through her writing, research as a performer, and teaching of acting.
Research trends show this responsibility of self-surveillance is correlated to poor
health outcomes, anxiety, obsessive thinking, depression, suicidal ideation, and struggles
to feel at home in the body. I have encountered embodiment research as an apparent
associative of performance training and scientific fields of study. Embodiment studies
as a growing field illumines explorations of supportive, if not liberatory, practices
for psycho-somatic well-being of a human in and out of performance-related paradigms.
Dominique McDaniel
Examining Online Advocacy Practices of Today's Youth
Dominique McDaniel has two converging lines of research that prepare teachers to work with students who have grown up immersed in digital environments. Her primary research examines the digital literacy practices of teens of color. Using social media applications like TikTok and Instagram as her research field, she analyzes how Black and Latino/a adolescents tap into social movements.
McDaniel鈥檚 second line of research is a case study involving KSU students studying to become teachers. She created a professional learning community for these students, also called pre-service teachers, and named it Project CULTURE, an acronym for Culture Understanding and Learning of Teachers Uniting to Reimagine Education.
McDaniel's work sheds new light on how youth are engaging and communicating in civic discourse around issues that are relevant to them, especially in the context of the social challenges surfaced by the pandemic and the resulting social movements. Often, today鈥檚 youth who are active in online advocacy and activism ultimately become engaged in their communities in a face-to-face, offline environment.
