Eugenia S. Kim is a Lecturer of Performing Arts Research at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. She received her PhD from the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong where she created the movement history Lithium Hindsight 360 by making use of Virtual Reality and Motion Capture technologies. Eugenia takes an interdisciplinary practice-based approach to her research which includes digital curation for dance and new media art.
In this article I propose that motion capture (mocap) and virtual reality (VR) technology can be used to record and visualize movement histories as a supplement to oral histories or for when a memory is based in a embodied experience. One specific example would be the presentation of illness narratives. To illustrate this situation, I examine the concept of illness narratives, particularly those created by dance artists, and use my movement history, Lithium Hindsight 360, as a case study. This analysis comes from the perspective of a hybrid movement artist, VR creator, archivist and digital humanist, with first-hand experience of the challenges encountered when creating a movement history. The challenges are presented within the context of mocap recording, data curation, digital preservation and sustainability issues. I end this article by providing some basic practical strategies and recommendations for researchers who are new to documenting movement histories.
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The roots of this article started in my previous research on digital dance preservation. As a choreographer and digital archivist, I was intent on finding a practical way to preserve human movement as accurately as possible. At first I believed very strongly in all the existing preservation practices, whether it was collecting good metadata, using high quality video for documentation or ensuring that a repository followed the Open Archival Information System [OAIS] model. These practices worked well in the archives and libraries where I worked, but were not so feasible as an independent artist working alone. From an archivist's perspective it meant processing haphazardly maintained content. From a choreographer's perspective, it was frustrating to be unable to see and analyze all the nuances of how a dance work was performed.
In 2013, I started to become more invested in the Boston dance community and its history since the 1950s. In an effort to fill gaps in the existing documentation, I was inspired by The Dance Oral History Project created by the New York Public Library .
By luck, dance scholar Jeffrey Friedman happened to be teaching an oral history workshop in Boston around this time. Hearing him talk about dance-specific examples was very useful as I prepared to conduct my own interviews. Very quickly, however, I encountered the same problem that had plagued me for documenting dance: how does one verbally describe movements that defy words?
This problem eventually formed the basis for my practice-based research on creating movement-based pathographies. My original motivation for using mocap and VR was to give patients and viewers alike a sense of privacy. After constructing my initial prototype, however, I realized another benefit. By using mocap data to create an animation viewable in VR, viewers could have complete freedom to examine the movement from any angle or distance. In some ways this meant a more unbiased form of moving image documentation in that the framing of the content had not been decided for the viewer.
To address the issues of providing an enhanced viewing experience without being extravagant in one's technology choices, it may be useful to look to the field of dance for performance strategies that can help add nuance. The connection between dance and oral histories is that dances are a part of oral tradition that can be intangible and ephemeral in such a way that challenges the act of documentation itself . Furthermore, "Dance also challenges other experts to think about devising imaginative methods or scoring, notating, annotating, and archiving a processual, somatic, and multisensory practice" . Since a movement history is still based on a personal memory, it would be logical to look at how somatic dance forms that embrace the unique attributes of an individual body for strategies on how to recall, express and perform embodied experiences in a physical manner.
Somatic movement practices often require practitioners to explore the idiosyncrasies of their bodies and their relationship to other bodies in a way that generates a sort of autobiography. These movement practices can also be used to literally illustrate life events which leads to a form of double-layered autobiography. Improvisational methods may incorporate internal and/or external questioning which then becomes reminiscent of an oral history interview. The range of somatic movement practices range from the Asian disciplines of yoga and tai chi to more recent systems such as Feldenkrais and Body Mind Centering. Within that spectrum lie somatic dance forms that have become increasingly used for artistic expression: Authentic Movement, Contact Improvisation and Skinner Releasing Technique amongst others. Steve Paxton, founder of Contact Improvisation, was known for his Small Dance ritual which guides the individual to examine their own body. This self-examination was later part of Paxton's documentation about his process which essentially served a sort of autobiography of his body .
The visualization of this mocap data can also help with human movement analysis . Although mocap data can be visualized in both 2D and 3D spaces, the latter option allows viewers full rein over perspective within a 6DOF (degrees of freedom) interactive context. The term "6DOF" refers to the three directions in which the head can move (3DOF) combined with the three directions in which the body can move through space An added benefit of VR is that it is fully immersive and therefore visual distractions can be eliminated. Untethered headsets such as the Oculus Quest provide additional freedom in movement. This adds to a sense of immersion which can be a useful element for supporting a narrative. Previous concerns about motion sickness and ergonomic issues are being addressed through improved headset design, increased graphics computing power and a generally better understanding of VR design principles. Researchers such as Michael Madary and Thomas K. Metzinger have released recommendations for more ethical design and constant updates in software platforms and standards also contribute to an improved experience. Another benefit of using an immersive environment is the ability with which it is possible to blend both visual and aural media with sound playing as vital a role to immersion as visuals. This balance between types of media may help address Mark Tebeau's concerns about overemphasizing visual representations of oral histories and the need for novel ways of data visualization .
Several traditional oral history collections currently exist, including several on mental health. They include the oral histories of disability and personal and mental health collections at the British Library , the Australian Generations Oral History Project and the Schizophrenia Oral History Project . There also exist dance and other movement-based works which are based on a patient experiences. As an art form, illness narratives have been created and shared by professional dancers for centuries with classic examples being the madness scene in Giselle and a deathbed duet in Manon.
The contrast between Intensive Care and Still/Here lies in the ethical complications surrounding both pieces. In Halprin's case, she performs in a piece about someone with whom she had a close relationship with. Still/Here, on the other hand, is Jones' interpretation of stories that he collected from others before presenting it on the bodies of professional dancers. This question of whether such a deeply personal story should be depicted by an outsider calls to mind Susan Kozel's challenging of Daniel Dennett's notion of the heterophenomenologist . While heterophenomenology is not inherently unethical, the value of such a practice becomes more questionable when the experiences of traditionally silenced and/or vulnerable populations are being presented through the lens of an external neutral observer.
In "Symptoms", individual symptoms are depicted by a group of mannequins that resemble each other. They are anchored by a mannequin attempting to ask for help but unable to articulate its needs. Presenting the physical movements without an explanation of the symptom can make a viewer pause and rethink their previous understanding of what a mental health condition looks or feels like. For "Maintenance" viewers are taken through a standard day of waking up, taking medicine, anxiety over interacting with others, exhaustion from feigning good health and then the return to bed. This scene has a more traditional dance sequence as I used to dance to relieve anxiety and stress. The majority of the movement is more pedestrian to the point of almost looking like pantomime. Since the predominant physical feeling was the sensation of constantly falling apart, the avatar is also constantly shifting and appearing to disintegrate before stabilizing again.
Other useful strategies can be found in the work of dance movement researchers. In her overview of mocap dance, Kim Vincs reminds readers that concepts such as gravity, race, and gender can all be manipulated in post-production . This manipulation eases the pressure for a "perfect" performance and provides the option of hiding certain physical traits. More technical factors such as pre-acceleration of the body and thinking in terms of motion trails rather than shapes may help with recording cleaner data. Movement artist-researcher Steph Hutchison conscientiously adapted her practice to the requirements of a mocap system to yield better results . One practical modification was in thinking of the markers on her body as "partners" to work with rather than struggle with. 2ff7e9595c
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