“Expressions of Alamelu” Exhibition – Storytelling Through Interactive Design
“Expressions of Alamelu” Exhibition – Storytelling Through Interactive Design
By Tovi Joi Pannell, CSULB Student
An intersection between design and technology came to life in the CSULB Design Gallery in a performance called “Expressions of Alamelu”, a Kuchipudi dance that integrated interactive AI to enhance its storytelling. The project combined three X5 thesis projects in CSULB Design Department’s HXDI (human experience design interactions) program from team members Sofia Ingegno; with experience in exhibition design, Divya Harshini Dhavala; a Kuchipudi dancer, Gabe Gutierrez; with experience in generative AI, and Kathy Lin and Cameron Romeis; two X6 members. Together their combined expertise created this unique exhibition event.
The project was inspired by a desire to go beyond traditional product design and focus on creating experiences that truly meet human needs. Sofia stated that with each team members unique background expertise, “We wanted to challenge ourselves and work together to take the knowledge we had accumulated both in regard to our thesis projects and the design process that we learned collaboratively, to challenge ourselves into creating something new for our community” (Sofia). The story “Expressions of Alamelu” was selected for the challenge of blending emerging technology with a traditional dance as it has engaging lyrics that were ideal for visual storytelling. The story contains many narrative elements that can be found in Kuchipudi - Abhinaya (Expressions), and “by adding an interactive AI layer, we aimed to make the performance more accessible and help audiences gain deeper insight into the story’s meaning” (Sofia). This creative representation shared culture in a unique way engaging an audience eager to learn about different cultures.
Kuchipudi, one of 8 major classical Indian traditional dance forms, originated in the 14th century in the village of Kuchelapuram (now called Kuchipudi), Andhra Pradesh. “This art form combines three elements: Nritta (pure dance), which showcases rhythmic, aesthetic movements; Nritya (expressive dance), blending graceful poses with lyrical storytelling; and Natya (drama), where the dancer uses Abhinaya (facial expressions) to depict emotions and narratives. Together, these elements create a captivating performance that balances rhythm, expression, and dramatic storytelling, making Kuchipudi a unique and enchanting dance form” (Divya). Divya, the dancer of the project, moved to the US from India when she was 10, and learned Kuchipudi to stay connected with her cultural heritage, and has also been the inspiration behind many of her own design and art projects and she believes “there’s so much more to learn about this art form and hopefully I get to carry on this art form to the future generations” (Divya). For the performance, she took two to three hours to get ready, wearing an outfit specific to Kuchipudi style dance made from Pattu Saree (Silk Saree) from South India in the color green, which is associated with the emotion of love. She wore temple jewelry “offering protection to the wearer and adding a sacred dimension to the dance” (Divya) including a haaram, a long necklace of a goddess sitting on the lotus motif. She also wore exaggerated make up with heavy eyeliner and her feet colored red with Alta paint, which all highlights the dancers’ expressions and gestures.
The Expressions of Alamelu story is inspired by the song AlameluManga Hari Antaranga, which praises Alamelumanga, a revered goddess in Hinduism, known as the consort of Lord Venkatesa (Vishnu). The song “Alamelumanga Hari Antaranga” embodies the Shringara rasa and “highlights the divine beauty and elegance of Alamelumanga (the heroine) and her intimate connection with Hari (the hero)” (Divya). It describes Alamelumanga as “deeply compassionate and graceful, with her black tresses compared to rows of bees and her hands as soft as lotus petals… with her beauty likened to the moon, her love and kindness embodying divine femininity. Her teeth are compared to pomegranate seeds, symbolizing their beauty” (Divya). Her poetic description and the portrayal of love between her and Hari evokes a sense of awe for her and celebration for the union of the divine couple. In the Expressions of Alamelu story, Alamelumanga picks flowers and sits down to make a garland in her garden as she waits for her husband. She gets annoyed that he comes late and there is banter between them, but she sees his handsome face and melts, puts the garland on him, and they dance away.
The design process included tracking movement with technology and AI prompted image generation to match the movements. To do so, team member Gabe Gutierrez developed a process of turning written and spoken prompts into visuals using an AI model. To create the project, they “used open-source models like Stable Diffusion Turbo and Google’s MediaPipe pose tracking within TouchDesigner, powered by NVIDIA graphics cards, to generate images in real time”. Before the performance, they translated the lyrics into English and organized them in a table, the “AI helps frame the context of the songs content, what is said in the traditional language, without changing the language” (Sofia). During the performance, they “matched these translations to the dancer’s movements, sending the text to the image-generation model. The dancer’s body movements were tracked and translated into a skeletal form, prompting the AI to create a new image with each motion”. Divya felt that the AI added a layer to the performance that strived to “enhance the story without overshadowing the dance. While there were some limitations, we focused on using visuals to help people unfamiliar with the lyrics or cultural references understand the narrative better” (Divya). This interesting process combined innovative technology with expression and storytelling and added context to a story through visuals to an audience who would not have understood the story through the language of the lyrics while still “maintaining cultural authenticity of the art form” (Sofia).
The team overcame the challenging aspects such as time management to complete the project in three weeks while juggling other course work, and without a budget, they “relied on support from friends, family, mentors, and the Design department for space, equipment, and outreach” (Sofia). The project team wants to extend a special thanks to Debra Satterfield, Diane Stein, and Denny Cubbage for their support and help in hosting the event. This design exhibition integrated teamwork, a passion for design, traditional storytelling, and interactive technology to share culture in a new and innovated way.
