Within the nexus of the human body, technology and perception–where the
human and the machine are brought together in cyborg-inspired visions–we
can also find the Australia-based artist Sterlac’s explorations of body and tech-
nology. He also seems interested in puppeteering the human body, as if instal-
ling a sort of post-production procedure whereby his limbs can be controlled.
His most interesting project in this regard may be hisMovatar(), which he
describes as an“inverse motion capture system”.Motion capture is based on
capturing the movements of one object, often a human body, and mapping that
motion onto a virtual object, for example aD graphical model of a human
being. Now, what Stelarc’sMovatardoes is to reverse the traffic of data. Rather
than having movement data mapped from the real to the virtual body, he pro-
poses to get data from a virtual body equipped with the artificial intelligence
necessary to generate movement, and map that data onto one or more human
bodies. In a presentation of the project Stelarc writes:
Consider, though, a virtual body or an avatar that can access a physical body, actuat-
ing its performance in the real world. If the avatar is imbued with an artificial intelli-
gence, becoming increasingly autonomous and unpredictable, then it would become
more an AL (Artificial Life) entity performing with a human body in physical space.
With an appropriate visual software interface and muscle stimulation system, this
would be possible. The avatar would become a Movatar. Its repertoire of behaviors
could be modulated continuously...and might evolve using genetic algorithms. With
appropriate feedback loops from the real world it would be able to respond and per-
form in more complex and compelling ways. The Movatar would be able not only to
act, but also to express its emotions by appropriating the facial muscles of its physical
body.Starlac’s project appears at a time when the mapping of movement data from
one object to another has become an important device in the field of cultural
production.Motion capture technologies have long been used in the produc-
tion of films and games, and the art world is rife with more playful mappings of
data. Recent developments in image production seem to render motion capture
techniques even more central, and thereby bolster the realm of post-production.
With reference toThe Matrix Reloaded(), Silberman, explains this shift in
the following way:
The standard way of simulating the world in CG [Computer Graphics] is to build it
from the inside out, by assembling forms out of polygons and applying computer-
simulated textures and lighting. The ESC team [ESC Entertainment is a special effects
company] took a radically different path, loading as much of the real world as possi-
ble into the computer first, building from the outside in. This approach, known as
image-based rendering, is transforming the effects industry.178 Arild Fetveit