Idling-in-the-Unreal

Idling-in-the-Unreal (2021) animates digital human puppets using motion capture (mocap) files from the ‘idling’ category. Then, a human-action-recognition (HAR) algorithm combined with a natural language generator produces ‘text from the body’.

Developers typically wrap their game mechanics around the kind of assets used in this project: digital humans and mocap animation. Discourse around ‘the real’ has been philosophically contested through the ages, eventually being killed off altogether and replaced by simulacra and the hyperreal, where fact and fiction seamlessly blend together. While concepts of ‘reality’ and ‘the real’ remain slippery, ‘idling’ has come into sharper focus as a creative, productive, brain state.

More info here about the text corpus used in this project︎︎︎

The full version of Idling-in-the-Unreal (27:07) was produced as an animation loop for the group exhibition, CAN WE EVER KNOW THE MEANING OF THESE OBJECTS?, Gallery 46, London E1, 2021.