Graduate Studies

Digital Futures (MA, MDes and MFA)

Yutong Zheng

Techno Tai Chi

Techno Tai Chi sits at the intersection of tradition and technology. The project employs an innovative approach of adapting interactive technologies for artistic expressions of the techniques and the philosophy behind the Chinese Martial Art Tai Chi in a performance piece. Motion tracking, gesture recognition and haptic technology are used in the underlying interactive system. The interactive system recognizes the gesture and the movement of the Tai Chi practitioner, and translates the motion and the energy in them in real time through sound and haptic feedback for participants in the performance to experience. With the aid of these interactive technologies, the project aims to materialize some of the abstractions of certain philosophical concepts in Tai Chi through embodied knowledge gained from the experience. As a result, beyond the artistic expressions, the potential of Techno Tai Chi expands to the practical use of the interactive system as a teaching tool.

“The project aims to open up a dialogue between practitioners of traditional arts such as Tai Chi and the general public to facilitate a better understanding for these traditional arts. More importantly, it can bring forth new dimensions to traditional arts and practices such as Tai Chi in the digital age. It can spring up critical transformations of these traditional arts and practices, creating new spaces for them to not only survive but thrive.”