12/12/2010

studies in motion

Eadweard Muybridge was born in Kingston-upon-Thames, England, in 1830 but made a name for himself in San Francisco; first as a landscape photographer, later as the man who studied locomotion in animals and human beings. He has been often hailed as the father of the moving image, of motion picture and animation.

Studies in Motion written by Kevin Kerr is an Electric Company Theatre production presented by Canadian Stage in Toronto until December 18. It explores how the words of art and science collide and mingle placing the historical figure of Muybridge at the center of this interplay. Considered as one of the “fathers of modern-day cinema”, Muybridge’s work and idea of placing several cameras to shoot motions like walking, jumping and dancing, had significant implications in the worlds of photography, visual arts, film and science.


The questions of how art and science relate to and inform each other are particularly resonant in the play successfully staged by Kim Collier. The plot is inspired by Muybridge’s photographic investigations into animal locomotion, which he began in the early 1870s and continued through the mid-1880s. His photographs accumulate in exhaustive catalogues of movement and gradually become charged with a sense of beauty, humour and even madness. A blend of fact and fiction, a fusion of text and projected imagery, the story seems to be a revelation in our attempt to understand one basic question: how do I walk? How do I go on? What is motion?

                                              scene from the play


After all, Studies in Motion is a story about a revolution in perception and the ensuing challenges of our grasping of reality and the human and animal condition. 

Aucun commentaire:

Enregistrer un commentaire