RELU is focused on democratising access and inclusion in metaverse-type spaces through the development of affordable and accessible motion capture tools for real-time interaction in virtual landscapes – for the benefit of all immersive media users.

This project sees immersive and virtual media technology as an opportunity to address disinformation, misrepresentation and stigmatisation of disability in mainstream media by tackling obstacles to access and visibility for both physically disabled and neurodivergent people. In this way, diverse groups of users will be able to see themselves, represent themselves, and interact with others on their own terms in immersive platforms.

However, current design processes, the normative interpretation of bodies by algorithms, and technological modes of interaction tools still largely exclude disabled bodies and minds. Focusing on motion-captured digital dance as an essential form of movement-based interaction, our project brings together artists, developers, performers and researchers to develop sustainable and inclusive tools which are not created for disabled people but rather with them, and ultimately for all users of immersive technology.

About

Mοverse brings a novel motion capture product delivering a quick-to-setup, scalable, flexible and affordable solution. An AI-powered marker-based solution, uniquely posing it to overcome contemporary challenges associated with marker-based MoCap like missing markers and related noise, and beyond. mοverse tech is capable of reconstructing full-body motions of high-quality in such cases where the missing or non-normative information is detrimental to competing solutions. (412)

The Mocap Streamer Collective are a UK/London based collective of dance and digital artists, creative technologists, and researchers – both disabled and abled. We are connected by the idea of remote dance practice, interaction, and collaboration through the real-time streaming of motion capture data into generative graphics engines. We align this idea with the convergence of immersive and motion capture technologies within the widely-discussed proposal of a shared ‘metaverse’ as a new frontier for embodied connection, play, and performance.