Human-machine performance configuration for computational cybernetics

The term "human-machine performance" has a precedent in the term "human-machine intelligent interaction", with the following emphases. The first emphasis is on the multi-modal capacity of a performer. This capacity is supported by parallel processing computing power, various input devices, gesture input time scheduling techniques and the configurations of graphics and sound engines to provide perceptual feedback to a performer. The second is on the method for coupling two spaces: a physical space where an observer acts, and an abstract space where computational states are represented as a solution space or control parameter space. The coupling should be implemented such that the dichotomy of the two spaces is intelligible and composable. Few methods have been tested in virtual reality environments with graphical interfaces. The circularity in human-machine performance supports cybernetic observation by which an observer is included in a computing environment as an active player. This paper describes three technical areas we have established in order to support this configuration: (1) a software architecture to accommodate an interactive performance that is crucial to achieve a circularity in a computing environment; (2) an implementation of a manifold space to maintain multiple models in parallel for real-time access and control; and (3) a theoretical framework for coupling computational space and physical space. In particular, the core of our project lies in exploring high-dimensional systems with an ecological orientation towards an arbitrarily defined n-dimensional space.