banner image with seed, overhead view of room, robot

At the Machine Cohabitation Lab (cohab-lab.net), we prepare for a future living, working, and learning with machines. We explore intersections of human and machine perception, particularly how emerging technology impacts sites of intimate life. We develop modes of embodied experience and experimental human-computer interaction. Using AI, data science, and distributed computing workflows, we explore creative AI and augmentation of human imagination. With IoT and embedded, situated computing, we create smart homes and responsive environments. Through all, we seek insight into human imagination and perception, staging mutually revelatory encounters between humans and machines. We strive to deepen our understanding of emerging technology, cultivate perspective on what we ask our machines to do, and inform the design of our future.

People

Robert Twomey, Ph.D. Founding Director, Assistant Professor at the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, UNL

Reid Brockmeier, Creative Technologist, Researcher on Generative AI, Digital Fabrication, Robotics, Embodied Code

Kylie Muller, Undergraduate Researcher on Embodied Code, Curriculum Design

Abraham Schaecher, UCARE Undergraduate Researcher on Generative AI, Data Science

Lincoln Graham, UCARE Undergraduate Researcher on "Narrative Systems and Performative AI"

Alumni

Emma Mirnics, Undergraduate Researcher with the Embodied Code Project

Caleb Kirilov, UCARE Undergraduate Researcher

Projects

Embodied Code: embodiedcode.net 

 

Radio Play + Performative AI: radio-play.net

 

Generative Art + Empathy: see Schaecher's "Generative Art Based on the Input of Emotions", or the SDMA feature on "Art + Empathy Lab". Art+Empathy Website.

 

Artificial Imagination: (see POM performance)

 

 

Measurable Creative AI: mcreativeai.org (with collaborators from Carnegie Mellon University ML Department and Robotics Institute)

 

Smart Home / IoT / Experimental HRI: dissertation work at the University of Washington

Grants