The ALICE Project (Augmented Live Interactively Controlled Environment) is an interdisciplinary research project which melds existing technologies to pioneer a new live performance methodology. The project aims to accomplish this by enabling the performers (actor, dancer, musician, etc.) to interact with their stage environment in a dynamic and unique way. By integrating video projection, entertainment automation, motion capture, and virtual reality technologies together, the project enables new possibilities in live performance and enhance the audience’s experience.
A mockup of the stage setup for the ALICE project.
While Dan and Shuxing have worked on several project together, their collaboration’s with Kevin arose out of two different events. Kevin and Shuxing were both faculty members on the 2013 Wisconsin Idea Seminar, a five-day traveling study tour that immerses forty UW–Madison faculty, academic staff, and administrators in the educational, industrial, social, and political realities of Wisconsin. One the first night on the tour, Kevin and Shuxing were roommates together and discussed the similar research interests. Kevin and Dan first met when the Design Studies Department held a visit for the Theater Department on campus. This meeting showed that there was a great deal overlap in interests between all three faculty members. This was the genesis for the discussions that eventually become the proposed ALICE project.
ALICE early flying tests
The ALICE project is sponsored by the University of Wisconsin – Madison’s Interdisciplinary Research Competition. Funding for the Interdisciplinary Research Competition comes from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), which was created in 1925 to help commercialize technology arising from UW–Madison research. Since then, WARF has provided the university with more than $1.36 billion for research, programs and initiatives.
Interested in finding out more about the work of the ALICE project?
Email us at: AliceProject@discovery.wisc.edu
