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Shelley Eshkar is an artist whose work explores drawing, computer graphics, and human movement. One of his primary tools is motion capture, a technology that digitally captures the kinetics, but not the physical likeness, of human action. The bodies, spaces, and motions themselves are radically recomposed to create works of performance that exist only in virtual form. Since 1997 Eshkar and longtime collaborator Paul Kaiser have been creating museum and stage works with major figures in modern dance. With Bill T. Jones, they premiered the virtual dance installation Ghostcatching (1999). For Merce Cunningham’s BIPED (1999), they combined live and digital performers on stage. In Loops (2001, with Marc Downie) they created a digital portrait of Cunningham based on the motion of his hands. In 2003, the team began developing works with Trisha Brown and Bill T. Jones that employ motion-capture technology directly on stage. Beyond dance, Eshkar collaborates on digital works of art exploring the motions of everyday life. As part of his studio residency at the former World Trade Center, Eshkar prototyped the tiny digital New Yorkers that would populate Pedestrian. Projected directly on Manhattan public sidewalks in 2002, Eshkar and Kaiser introduced this Lilliputian world that continues to surprise passersby on sidewalks internationally. Current projects explore the motions of children, individual and environmental interactivity, and digital art on an architectural scale. |
