3.1.3.1. Background of the team members ‘Kurort’
The Rotterdam based artists Angelika Oei and René Verouden are the initiators of the ‘Kurort’ project. Angelika Oei (1. collage 6) has a background in the performing arts, choreography and audiovisual work; René Verouden (2. collage 6) started his artistic career as sculptor and migrated his practice over the years to media art. The artists designed the experience concept and co-developed ‘Kurort’ with the engineers of V2_Lab; the electronics designer in V2_Lab, Stock (3. collage 6), who has a electro- technical, sound and music background, developed the system’s main software structure and hardware interface, which was further developed by Rene Verouden and Angelika Oei. Erik Kemperman (4. collage 6), the artificial intelligence software engineer in V2_Lab with a mathematics and information science background, developed together with Stock the algorithms for real-time analysis & comparison of the user’s actions (using statistical analyses techniques). The representation of the system's emotions was inspired by Ortony, Clore and Collins. The algorithms for making decisions were influenced by the ‘system’s emotions’, and the decisions were made onto actions of the system towards the visitor. The exchange workshops and development trajectory were managed by Lobke Hulzink (5. collage 6), who has a design and marketing background. The team’s advisor was Scott deLahunta (6. collage 6), an internationally acknowledged researcher in dance and technology at the Dartington School of the Arts (UK), and the Amsterdam School for the Arts (NL). During a series of workshops, experts from computer science (7. collage 6), cognitive science (8. collage 6) and experimental psychology (9. collage 6) were brought in, as well as dancers with (10. collage 6) and without (11. collage 6) experience in technology, in addition to hardware and software engineers (12. collage 6) and media artists who also (co-)developed their own software systems (13. collage 6). The team members’ backgrounds and expertise is visualised in the aRt&D Triangle in collage 6, the size of the dots refer roughly to the input and involvement of the represented persons, as this affects the impact of one’s role in the research and development process. The main team members are thus represented by large dots, while those who brought in knowledge and expertise via the workshops without further involvement are represented by smaller dots.
