HOLOGRAM, HEADING INTO THE LIGHT: EXPLORING EMBODIMENT, IDENTITY, AND DIGITAL MOTION CAPTURE

Abstract

As digital technologies increasingly shape perception, interaction, and representation, dance artists are uniquely positioned to interrogate their impact on embodied experience. Hologram, my MFA thesis project, investigates how motion capture tools such as Rokoko and Unity mediate the expressive capacity of the body and influence the construction of identity in performance. This interdisciplinary research draws on rehearsal-based inquiry, digital experimentation, and somatic practice to examine the feedback system I call the Body-Machine Loop: a dynamic in which digital tools both discipline and are shaped by the bodies that use them.The process began with the collection of motion capture data from 35 dancers across various geographies, forming a digital archive of improvisatory material. Collaborating with a cast of four performers, we mined this archive using miscalibration, improvisation, and kinesthetic empathy to generate both live and digital choreography. The resulting performance explored glitch aesthetics, avatar logic, labor and reliability within digital systems, and the porous boundary between physical and virtual selves. The written thesis contextualizes the performance across five chapters: Chapter 1 introduces key definitions and methods; Chapter 2 frames the theoretical groundwork for digital embodiment and the Body-Machine Loop; Chapter 3 analyzes the construction and performance of Hologram; Chapter 4 documents technical strategies, failures, and workarounds; and Chapter 5 extends the research to issues of surveillance, labor, and digital materiality. Ultimately, this project argues for the choreographic and critical potential of glitch, the liveness of digital bodies, and dance as a methodology for investigating the sociopolitical logics embedded in contemporary technologies.