Faculty Research Profiles
Tisch faculty are shaping new directions in creative and scholary research - learn about their transformative work here.
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Instrumented Research for Real-World Dance Environments
Elizabeth Coker
Betsy Coker’s research is concentrated on how elite dancers control their balance in dynamic visual and auditory environments characterized by the use of stage lighting and music. While most balance research relies on laboratory-bound technologies like 3D optic motion capture and embedded force plates, Coker creates methods for assessing balance in real-world performance environments.
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Cyborg synchrony: integrating human physiology into affective generative music AI
Jason Snell
"Cyborg Synchrony" explores a framework for an interpersonal musical biofeedback system that utilizes physiological synchrony (a known correlate of social bonding) through shared musical interaction. The proposed AI model operates in two stages: (1) a Foundational Model trained on a diverse dataset of listeners’ physiological responses to a broad range of music, and (2) Individualized Tuning, where the system adapts to each user’s unique biometric patterns.
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Standardizing Empathy/Flow Communication Protocols in Healthcare
Scott Miller
Scott Miller’s project focuses on innovating how doctors and nurses communicate with patients and, by extension, with each other. From Miller’s research and preliminary interrogation in the field the evidence exposes that doctors,nurses, patients and administrators want healthcare practitioners to have much more enhanced communication skills, a gap that renders significant consequences.
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Touchy-Feely Algae
Yeseul Song with Priyanka Makin ('24 ITP)
This collaborative research has focused on identifying and developing sustainable fabrication materials for art-making and prototyping, offering alternatives to acrylic—one of the most popular commonly used materials for digital fabrication. Material Kitchen led by @yeseulsong_ (ITP faculty) and @priyankasomething (ITP alum) is a research initiative and resource for sustainable materials empowered by community engagement. The team has been working to reshape ‘what looks cool’ in physical projects by presenting new aesthetics and creative possibilities of sustainable materials.
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The Yāḻ: Reviving a Lost Sound
JD Samson
This research project aims to document and revitalize the Yāḻ, an ancient Indian stringed instrument facing cultural extinction, through field research, audio recordings, and documentary filmmaking. Initial research began in August 2024 with foundational investigations into the Yāḻ's history and consultations with Indian researchers and ethnomusicologists. Hitha Yelluru, a Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music major, has worked with faculty to develop best practices for field recording and music production. Celeste Yeany, a Film & TV and Environmental Studies double major, has consulted with professors to establish a documentary framework. Local Indian artists have joined conversations to provide additional recording support.
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Bridging Theory and Practice within Classroom Setting
Luis Rincón Alba with Shamar Watt (‘24 Grad Dance)
Luis Rincón Alba, in collaboration with alum Shamar Watt, is researching a teaching methodology grounded in Nhaka, a movement technique developed by dancer nora chipaumire. Nhaka borrows from ancestral dance techniques from Zimbabwe and it expands limited understandings of the brain as the thinking organ to incorporate the whole body and its capacity to connect with the soil. They consider this a global issue because unless humanity develops/recovers an active corporeal connection with the soil, the climate crisis will be addressed only with our isolated brains. Nhaka breaks useless divisions of theory and practice while it invites students to become active thinkers and to incorporate readings and study materials into their corporealities through a series of rigorous and precise exercises with which they start every class.
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