Participative Robotics and The Spectacle of Motion Capture

Abstract

Experiments with animating human bodies on stage are reported here. In our performances, animations are carried out by augmenting human motions, coercing actions, experiencing disruptions of realism, shifting kinesthetics, or altering anatomies. These activities are performed on the participants' bodies using mechatronic devices such as exoskeletons, supernumerary limbs, or symbiotic apparatuses. We adapt motion capture (mocap) techniques and data gathered from bodies, crowds, and devices to control, augment, and alter human movements as if we were animating 3D virtual characters, yet with the inevitable constraints of the physical world and human body integrity. In a constant shift of locus of perception, through 'ghost' control and gestural doubles, human volition is destabilized and turns into an uncanny paradox of pleasure and loss of self-control.