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BS CTD graduate blends passion for dance with technology, arts & media

Anonymous — Mon, 07 May 2018 21:52:38 +0000

BS CTD graduate blends passion for dance with technology, arts & media Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/07/2018 - 15:52

Emily Daub began her ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� career as a chemistry major, but she soon realized it wasn’t a good fit. She loved science and technology, but she was also passionate about dance and interested in design; she knew her strengths, but she didn’t know how she could pull them all together into one major.

But after joining the ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� Fashion Design Student Association, Daub’s plans moved in a new direction when a member of the Maker’s Collective, a student club, asked the FDSA for help incorporating lights into dance clothing.

When Daub volunteered, she entered the orbit of the Makers’ Collective, which met in the ATLAS Institute's Blow Things Up (BTU) Lab. Fortuitously, that was the year that ATLAS launched its new interdisciplinary degree program which blends engineering skills with design and technology. When Daub heard about it, she realized this was the opportunity she was looking for.

It was a good choice: Later this month, Daub graduates with a Bachelor of Science in Technology, Art & Media (TAM), along with a minor in theater and dance.

"TAM allowed me to pursue the nontraditional things I am interested in,” says Daub, whose senior project, “The Show,” included an ambitious dance performance in the ATLAS Black Box, featuring a wide spectrum of dance styles and costumes designed and equipped by her with embedded computational and wireless communications technologies. In addition, she choreographed the production and performed alongside the six other dancers.

“I love knowing how things work,” says Daub. “Dance allows me to explore my body as a machine; engineering lets me understand other things as machines.”

For that first wearable technology project, Daub worked on a swing dance skirt, inserting an accelerometer and 70 LEDs in the hem and coding them so the skirt lit up when the wearer spun. Since then, she’s created more than 20 pieces of wearable technology of varying levels of complexity, but “The Show” is by far her most ambitious project.

Masterminding both the art and engineering is a comfortable role for Daub, which strikes some as unusual. “I've almost always been an outlier,” Daub says. “TAM fosters that spirit, allowing it to become an asset rather than a handicap.”

“The Show” has kept Daub busy since January, designing and sewing costumes, embedding microprocessors, sensors and NeoPixel LEDs, and programming each with unique light patterns that respond to movement and the wearer’s proximity to other dancers over time.

In addition, she encoded a matrix of affinities between dancers, so that when characters with mutual attraction dance together, light patterns in their costumes reflected the personal chemistry and gradually converged. At the same time, analogous changes took place in the pairs' dance styles, Daub says.

Daub says she couldn’t have reached this point without support, including funding from an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) grant which covered all the materials for “The Show.” And working under the mentorship of Ben Shapiro as a member of the ATLAS research group, The Laboratory for Playful Computation, meant she was surrounded by a group of supportive graduate students. “Annie Kelly was so, so helpful,” says Daub, referring to a PhD student in the lab.

Daub says she feels lucky to have been able to combine her passions for dance and textiles with engineering, uniting her inner problem-solver and expressive artist. She says that the technical side of her work tends to draw the most attention, but she prefers that her artistry be seen in a more holistic sense. She choreographed “The Show,” performed alongside six other dancers, and she’s proud of the appearance of her costumes, even when the embedded technology is not apparent.

“When I have an idea that I want to realize, that’s the goal I’m focused on,” says Daub. “Soldering, designing, choreographing, coding—they are all related to each other, and they are all necessary.”

Emily Daub was searching for a way to be true to her artistic passions, but also wanted to satisfy her innate curiosity in the sciences. She found her place at ATLAS, where the two worlds collided.

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"The Show" explores relationships through dance and digital technology

Anonymous — Tue, 01 May 2018 18:23:28 +0000

"The Show" explores relationships through dance and digital technology Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/01/2018 - 12:23

Emily Daub is fascinated by human interactions: How people change while in or out of relationships; how they value themselves in the context of their relationship status; how changes in relationships affect us; and how each relationship differs from another.

On May 4, Daub brings her fascination to life in an ambitious dance performance that features a wide spectrum of dance styles and handmade costumes equipped with embedded computational and wireless communications technologies.

Titled “The Show,” the performance is billed as a variety dance performance that “tells the story of how we shape and mold others (and vice versa),” writes Daub, who graduates in May with a bachelor’s degree from the ATLAS Institute’s Technology, Arts and Media (TAM) program, along with a minor in theatre and dance.

Daub entered ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� as a chemistry major with plans to attend medical school, but soon decided it wasn’t the right path for her. A member of the Fashion Design Student Association (FDSA), she found her way to the TAM program via the Makers Collective, another student group. “Someone from the Makers Collective reached out with a project that involved inserting lights in clothing,” says Daub. “That caught my interest.”

She worked on a swing dance skirt, inserting an accelerometer and 70 LEDs in the hem and coding them so the LEDs would light when the wearer spun. Soon after, she became the president of the Makers Collective, and because club activities happened in the ATLAS Blow Things Up (BTU) Lab, she learned about the TAM program. Since then, she’s created more than 20 pieces of wearable technology of varying levels of complexity, “The Show” being her most ambitious project to date.

Daub says she couldn’t have reached this point without support, including funding from an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) grant which covered all the materials. And working under the mentorship of Ben Shapiro as a member of the ATLAS research group, The Laboratory for Playful Computation, meant she was surrounded by a group of supportive graduate students. “Annie Kelly was so, so helpful,” says Daub, referring to a PhD student in the lab.

In addition, she’s encoded a matrix of affinities between dancers, so that when characters with mutual attraction dance together, light patterns in their costumes reflect the personal chemistry and gradually converge. At the same time, analogous changes take place in the pair's dance styles, Daub says.

While the technical side of her work tends to draw the most attention, Daub prefers to be known for her artistry in a more holistic sense. She’s choreographed “The Show,” and will perform alongside six other dancers, and she’s proud of her costumes and how the embedded technology looks and works. “How finished products look is very important to me,” she says. “I've gotten to this point mostly because the things I make are beautiful and functional, not because they are technically complex,” says Daub.

It’s the same way she’s always approached her projects, forming one coherent vision and then solving problems in order to realize it. “I’m motivated to achieve a specific outcome, not to just push my skills,” she says.

If you go

Who: Open to everyone!
What: “The Show,” a variety dance performance
When: Friday, May 4, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Black Box Experimental Theater, Roser ATLAS Center, 1125 18th St., Boulder
Cost: Free, but donations for the dancers will be accepted during the performance.
Registration required

Photo album
UROP Video
Inspiration and promise mark ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� graduating class (Daily Camera)

TAM senior Emily Daub is fascinated by how people are changed by their relationships. In her ambitious dance performance, she explores these ideas, featuring a wide range of dance styles and dance costumes that she designed with embedded wearable technology.

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Lightbulb moment leads to wearable technology for performance dance

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:46:44 +0000

Lightbulb moment leads to wearable technology for performance dance Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 11/30/2017 - 13:46

Emily Daub, a senior in ATLAS Institute's Technology, Arts and Media Program, combines her passions for dance and wearable technology by creating responsive costumes for performance dance.

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