File puptcrit/puptcrit.1001, message 104


Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2010 08:48:01 -0500
From: Hobey Ford <hobeyone-AT-gmail.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Is Herbie a Puppet?


> =A0Until I thought of it that way: when a motion capture performance
> artist uses his/her body in a way to animate a creature/object that is
> different than his/her own body, especially in anatomy and/or body
> position/options/capabilities, to me, it's nothing else than puppetry.
> The puppet brings something else than the "plain" body of the
> performer, and a very specific set of puppeteering skills is required.

I totally agree with this differentiation.  Motion Capture can be
puppetry when the actor is not simply acting or the mime is not simply
miming.  I think that they have to be employing the skills or mindset
of the puppeteer or puppetic intent or (I can't even describe it but
know it when I see it) before it is puppetry.


> =A0Would the displacement =A0of focus of the performance into a different
> part of the body/object be a definitive criteria in deciding whether
> or not something/anything performed live is actually puppetry?
> =A0I'm currently inclined to think so, considering that many an art form
> is required of a puppeteer in order to give full life and meaning to a
> performance, yet none of these by themselves can be called puppetry
> until they are used with the specific goal in mind.
> =A0Like the same toolbox can be used to build a functional piece of
> furniture or an exquisite work of art, I believe Motion Capture to be
> such a tool set, and that in itself, it cannot be called puppetry,> himself, and called it puppetry without any doubt.
> =A0If this is possible, imagine what a three-headed, winged, 6 legged
> creature could be, when animated by motion capture, perhaps by several
> puppeteers, acting in unison, most likely looking to the outside
> observer as a bunch of crazy contemporary dancers with some alien
> rhythm...
> =A0No need to to be fully alien to fit in the category I named. How
> about puppeteering a severely amputated actor, via motion capture?
> =A0Or a person with extra limbs, or the ability to fly, or to stretch
> its skin...
> =A0The arms become wings, a broomstick could be Pinnochio's nose
> extending at a puppeeteer's precise motion...
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