MovementXML: A Representation of Semantics of Human Movement Based on Labanotation

Candidate: Jonathan Hatol
Type: Master of Science (MSc), School of Interactive Arts and Technology
Date: May 26, 2006
Senior Supervisor: Dr. Vive Kumar
Thesis: Download Thesis Document

Abstract

Most of us are familiar with music notations. Dance notations, on the other hand, have not gained widespread acceptance. This can be attributed to the fact that dance notations, and human movement notations in general, are inherently complex. This complexity has also hindered researches in the field. Up to now, there is no de facto standard for dance score interchange. Labanotation is the most prevalent among the different human movement notations. Most technological advances so far have revolved around displaying and editing Labanotation scores using the computer. Applications such as the LabanWriter store the dance scores in a graphical format that is neither suitable for interpretation nor analysis. LabanXML, the latest advancement in the representation of Labanotation, falls short of describing the more complex aspects of Labanotation. This study uses an object-oriented approach to come up with an XML-based representation that captures the semantics of Labanotation.