Kinetic Futures Laboratory

The human body always moves forward. The expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital technologies presents an unprecedented range of opportunities and challenges for human society. As cognitive systems and brain functions become increasingly transferred to, and integrated into, digital computational systems and algorithms, questions arise about the primacy of the human body, its health, and engagement with individual and community-based physical activity programs and practices.

This technological transformation fundamentally alters how we realize health, movement, and physical experience in contemporary life. The external digitization of cognitive processes creates new tensions between virtual and physical realities, potentially reshaping our relationship with bodily movement, spatial awareness, and the sensory experiences that define human physicality. Understanding these dynamics becomes essential as we navigate a future where artificial intelligence mediates an increasing portion of human experience, making the study of kinetics, movement, and embodiment more critical than ever. The complexities of future-moving bodies require a complex assemblage of scientific modalities from a range of disciplines—from exercise science and physiology to sport management and sport sociology, from nutrition and food science to sport psychology and mental performance counseling.

The Kinetic Futures Laboratory (KFL) is an interdisciplinary initiative examining human movement in an era of digital transformation and Artificial Intelligence. Positioned at the intersection of kinesiology's diverse traditions, our lab addresses the renewed urgency to understand the complexity of physical activity, athletic performance, and embodied forms of spectatorship and consumption. Our multi-modal approach synthesizes quantitative, qualitative, and critical traditions to investigate key questions, such as the optimization of athletic performance, the gamification of physical activity, and the cultural production of moving bodies in an AI-mediated world.

Drawing on a broad spectrum of scientific paradigms, KFL-affiliated scholars approach movement as simultaneously biological, physical, technological, cultural, and affective. Central to our mission is the development of innovative research methods that bridge quantitative movement science with qualitative socio-technical analysis. This approach allows us to advance scientific understanding while critically examining how emerging technologies transform human movement practices. The KFL aims to contribute to both scientific discovery and practical applications across kinesiology’s diverse fields of inquiry, developing knowledge that enhances human performance and well-being in an increasingly digital world.