Re: [huml-comment] RE: [huml] February Minutes

["cognite zianet.com" <cognite@zianet.com>]

marvelous.
Yes, Kathakali and Kathak have nice formalizations, systems with only some
overlap with Bharatanatyam.
There are makeup and masks representing character as well as codified
references.  An instance is playing a transverse flute to indicate a literary 
reference to Krishna in his suitor mode.  

Such mask traditions are found in Indonesian and Thai drama, and I believe in 
old Burman.  Related formalization of the fuller context is seen in the 
surprisingly evocative and animated Bengali shadow drama.

This is wonderful stuff for generating, as Len has suggested, aside from 
analysis or parsing of communications. -- As canonicals, they serve as
sort of embodied, artifactual "tags"!  This generating is not "verbal" though 
far more formalized than simple mime.

very nice.  Thanks, Len.
SC
It was Kathakali I was trying to say at the meeting -- "a word like 
'katakana'" -- well sort of ;) !

On Wednesday 26 February 2003 02:26 pm, Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
> We discussed the Indian dance genre very early in the
> HumanML Phase 0 as an exemplar of a gesture system
> that evolved into formal genres.  Bharatanatyam is one
> of these.  There are several Indian schools of classical
> dance, e.g, Kathakali.  At one point, a web search
> uncovered some mudra illustrations and those could
> be the basis for a genre dictionary based on HumanML
> types.  A good one should include the sign, the signifiers,
> and the signifieds for each gesture.  The multiples are there
> to enable different formats for each one.  For example,
> a mudra has interpretations given a context of use,
> and one might want a 2D image, a video, and
> a real time 3Dor 2D animation (important because
> the mudra is a movement), and one would want
> examples in context where the interpretation varies.
> Lotsa work.
>
> Somewhere in our research, we
> also ran across a system for classical ballet movements
> that has been digitized.  If one wants to get really
> ambitious, the Kama Sutra is also available.  But
> consult local laws before posting the signifiers.  I have
> some books on tantra systems.
>
> Signs is signs.  Interpretations vary.  (-:
>
> len
>
>
> From: Rex Brooks [mailto:rexb@starbourne.com]
>
> In relation to that tokenization and reproduction of systematized human
> movement systems, suck as Native American Dance, Sylvia noted that there
> was another fully systematized and well-studied system in Indian culture,
> called "Mudra" "Bjharatyanatyam." Rob said he would research it.