To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org> Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2010 00:14:55 -0500 From: Mathieu Rene <creaturiste-AT-primus.ca> Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Is Herbie a Puppet? BODY { font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px; } Hiall, Darn, I wish I could read it all and participate actively in this lively discussion, but I'm happily building puppets for the entire month, and there are only a few hours in a day. The quick browsing I just did makes me want to share the following idea, and I apologize if it has been raised before. The question of wether or not Motion Capture is puppetry has been raised. I"d like to illustrate my current position about it by giving two examples. To me, just a few years ago, object puppetry was not Puppetry, at least not in a way that interested me in any way. Probably because, as a builder of puppets myself, I couldn't imagine how a simple unmodified everyday object could be as expressive and alive as a puppet built for the very purpose of looking alive. well, I was proven wrong, in a few minutes by seeing a very good show, big lesson in humility, and in keeping an open mind. Motion Capture has been for me in a fuzzy zone between what could be puppetry, and what it is not yet. Until 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. Sort of brings it right back to a some comment I might have heard from Jim Henson (Dark Crystal or Labyrinth making-of): a performer able to bring their entire performance into their hand (talking about a mime, perhaps, my memory is fuzzy tonight). Would the displacement of 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? I'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. Like 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, until it is applied for that very specific purpose of being puppetry. I've seen a hammer slick its hair back and look utterly imbued with himself, and called it puppetry without any doubt. If 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... No need to to be fully alien to fit in the category I named. How about puppeteering a severely amputated actor, via motion capture? Or a person with extra limbs, or the ability to fly, or to stretch its skin... The arms become wings, a broomstick could be Pinnochio's nose extending at a puppeeteer's precise motion... _______________________________________________ List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit Archives: http://www.driftline.org
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005