Decoding Directorial Style | Using Pose & Action Estimation to Analyze Theater Performances
HAI Seminar with Michael Rau
Get the latest news, advances in research, policy work, and education program updates from HAI in your inbox weekly.
Sign Up For Latest News
HAI Seminar with Michael Rau
This seminar pairs a case study of AI diffusion with an organizational approach to technological changes in the workplace.

This seminar pairs a case study of AI diffusion with an organizational approach to technological changes in the workplace.
As AI moves beyond language into systems that can perceive, understand, and act in the physical world, a new frontier is emerging: world models—AI systems that build and maintain working representations of real environments to predict how they change in response to action.

As AI moves beyond language into systems that can perceive, understand, and act in the physical world, a new frontier is emerging: world models—AI systems that build and maintain working representations of real environments to predict how they change in response to action.
Save the Date. Artificial intelligence is transforming how researchers collect, analyze, and learn from data. As AI systems become increasingly integrated into scientific discovery, business decision-making, and policy analysis, they are reshaping both the questions researchers can ask and the methods they use to answer them.

Save the Date. Artificial intelligence is transforming how researchers collect, analyze, and learn from data. As AI systems become increasingly integrated into scientific discovery, business decision-making, and policy analysis, they are reshaping both the questions researchers can ask and the methods they use to answer them.
Abstract:
At this seminar, hear how this research project employs machine learning and computer vision to analyze directorial styles and other aspects of theater performances, focusing on pose and action recognition. By applying these technologies to video recordings of theatrical productions, multiple performances by the same director are compared to identify distinctive patterns in choreography and staging. The approach combines both distant and close viewing techniques, enabling a more nuanced understanding of theatrical gestures and movements. Through this analysis, the abstract concept of directorial style is quantified.
Bridging the fields of performing arts, computer science, and digital humanities, this interdisciplinary project offers new insights into theatrical analysis and enhances the understanding of directorial signatures in live performance.

