Research
The lab is in Cochabamba. It builds creatures, sensors and worlds that respond to bodies, environments, memory and emotion in real time. These notes are its archive: experiments, failures and breakthroughs.
2026
, Cochabamba
The jaguaress learns her own skeleton
Huk the Jaguaress recovered her twenty-four real poses from an export that only looked finished: a faithful carousel exposed a smooth interpolation, an exporter rewritten to read the rig’s true keyframes brought the body back, and the question turned from how she moves to why.
, Cochabamba
The whale that watches back
YakuMama reads the colour of the room and answers with mood and song, decaying and reweighting ten emotions every frame, diving when the water is taken and singing when the rain comes, all running locally on one machine with no cloud.
, Cochabamba
The body decides the interface
The gecko learns finger puppeteering, the monkey begins to mirror directly, Huk the Jaguaress discovers her own skeletal logic, and a taxonomy of locomotion emerges.
, Cochabamba
The monkey learns the shape of its own body
Procedural tails, swing-twist quaternion decomposition, performer-centered quadruped animation, and the discovery that rest poses themselves carry assumptions about bodies, movement, and intelligence.
, Cochabamba
The monkey learns to move: quaternions, humanoid puppeteering
Quaternion retargeting, hybrid body-hand tracking, spine cascade systems, and the first full-body humanoid creature pipeline inside our ecosystem.
, Cochabamba
The llama learns to feel, the model learns to listen, and Yakumama is born
Neural network mood training, cardiac breathing systems, Yakumama’s emergence, and ch’ixi philosophy entering the animation pipeline.
, Cochabamba
When the heartbeat moves the flower
Pulse sensors, ESP32 systems, systole and diastole translated into real-time plant animation and embodied computational creativity.
, Cochabamba
The spider learns to weave, the gecko learns to feel, and SIGGRAPH calls
Orb-web systems, gecko emotional memory, Qwen integration, and SIGGRAPH documentation.
, Cochabamba
The gecko learns to feel, Qwen 3.6 finds its voice, and the recording begins
Sensor fusion, emotional state systems, flavor memories, AI narration, and real-time creature cognition.
, Cochabamba
15 creatures, 14 pipelines and a platform-agnostic brain
Building real-time creature intelligence systems across Blender, VR, sensors, and XR worlds.
, Cochabamba
The water lily learns to breathe, the sundew counts fingers, and the pipeline moves to WebSocket
Victoria Regia water sensing, Drosera finger tracking, hummingbird gaze systems, and WebSocket architecture migration.
, Cochabamba
The tree learns fear, the orchid mourns fire, and the llama finds stillness
NASA wildfire feeds, shy trees with infrared sensing, and calibration systems for nonhuman creature embodiment.
, Cochabamba
The $2 gyroscope that solved what the neural network couldn’t
Sensor fusion, 360° body tracking, gyroscopes, MediaPipe limitations, and embodied spatial intelligence.
, Cochabamba
Toward embodied intelligence for nonhuman characters
Depth sensing, robotic cameras, MediaPipe integration, and spatial movement systems beyond human pose datasets.
, Cochabamba
Somatic puppeteering across plants, birds and heartbeats
March 2026 research sprint exploring real-time body-driven creature systems across plants, condors, shaders, and pulse-responsive environments.
2025
, Cochabamba
When documentary begins to think
Two weeks on two fronts. In the lab, motion systems and pixel surfaces that react to movement. In the streets of Cochabamba, the Comteco vigil filmed and streamed as it happens.
, Cochabamba
Technologies of distribution, Comteco and the fight for transparency
For 88 days the senior shareholders of the telecom cooperative Comteco hold a vigil for elections, audits and answers. TikTok becomes a living archive of the protest.
, Cochabamba
From documentary to living systems
Affective computing between Montreal and La Paz, new worlds for Huk, and public subsidies, music interfaces, electoral data and aqueducts read as technologies of distribution.
, Guangzhou
The condor obeyed Violeta’s hand
At the opening of Surreality in Guangzhou a digital condor follows Violeta Ayala’s hand in real time. No motion capture suit. An early public demonstration of somatic puppeteering.
, Copenhagen
Building Huk V1.0: a digital deity for the burning Amazon
Huk the Jaguaress begins with the fires in the Amazon. Her first version connects wildfire alerts, plant bioelectricity, dancers and edge AI.
, Nottingham
Two machines, one question: feminist AI at the VIP Studio
Violeta Ayala and Yasmeen Hitti join the Feminist AI residency at the University of Nottingham’s VIP Studio. They build the VIP Chatbot, where OpenAI and DeepSeek answer the same prompt side by side.
2023
Exploring the future of XR and AI: a conversation with Kent Bye
Violeta Ayala talks with Kent Bye on the Voices of VR podcast about XR, AI and creative sovereignty.
Shaping policy for the arts and cultural sector
The submission of United Notions Film to the NSW Arts, Culture and Creative Industries policy: interdisciplinary programs, cultural diversity and an art and technology exchange.
, Sydney
Violeta Ayala’s mission: creating LUNA, the future of feminist AI
Violeta Ayala introduces LUNA, Learning Unbiased Neural Algorithm: a project and a documentary about building an AI that challenges bias.
, Sydney
Prison X: unlocking the Gen Z code
From Sundance to Paris and SXSW Sydney, Gen Z visitors move through Prison X by instinct while older audiences walk in circles.
, Sydney
La Lucha and Prison X at SXSW Sydney
The Australian premiere of La Lucha and the Sydney premiere of Prison X at SXSW Sydney.
, London
Las Awichas selected for the major GLoW3 exhibition in London
Las Awichas is one of four new commissions of the GLoW3 Artist Programme at King’s College London. How the work began in Tiupampa and Pocoata, and a diary of the first days in London.
La Lucha receives support for outreach
The Perspective Fund backs the outreach of La Lucha across Latin America.
La Lucha premieres at BlackStar Film Festival: a night to remember
La Lucha premieres at BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia. The team, the guests, the reviews and the opening night.
, New York
Violeta Ayala wins the XR Innovation 2023 award at Brain Jam, Games for Change, New York
At Brain Jam in New York six creators build twelve worlds of self-representation in 27 hours, starting from Aunt Victoria in Tiupampa. The work wins an Innovation Award.
