The Director’s Signature: Computational and Historical Perspectives on Theatrical Stylometry via Pose and Action Recognition

Professor Michael Rau: Stanford Department of Theater and Performance Studies
Peter Broadwell, Simon Wiles, Vijoy Abraham: Research Data Services, Stanford University Libraries

Human pose is fundamental to theater, positioned together with staging at the intersection of authorial intent and directorial vision. Yet this foundational nature often leads to pose being ignored or taken for granted in traditional theater studies. The MIME (Machine Intelligence for Motion Exegesis) project seeks to remedy this oversight by using machine learning and computer vision to analyze directorial styles and other aspects of theater performances through the lens of pose and action recognition. This interdisciplinary project therefore combines computational, historical and artistic perspectives to explore how emerging technologies can contribute new insights to theatrical analytics.

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Lunch will begin at 11:45 a.m. for in-person attendees.