Figure Studies
2013
Figure Studies / Process Pictures
Figure Studies brings together art and science and embraces multiple referents: contemporary studies of biomechanics; the photographic motion studies of nineteenth-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge and French physiologist Etienne-Jules Marey; and the vocabulary of post-modern dance.
The project was born during an exhibit of SlowDancing on the facade of Widener Library at Harvard University in 2012. One evening, while sitting in the hushed silence of Harvard Yard to watch, a research professor introduced himself to me as Dan. As a running enthusiast, it didn’t take me long to realize who I was talking to: Dr. Daniel Lieberman, the Edwin M Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences and a Professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, who had become somewhat famous for his explication and advocacy for barefoot running. Dan told me that he had high-speed camera’s in his lab that he used for his research on the evolution of the human body, but nothing quite like what we were seeing writ large on the library facade. We mused about what might be possible should we seek to merge the high-end, high-speed filmmaking practice of our studio with movement that might be developed in Dan’s lab (and for his cameras) for purposes of better understanding the human body in motion.
Several nights later, another Harvard scientist, Dr. David Edwards, introduced himself to me. David is a bio-engineer and the Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Biomedical Engineering. In 2007, he opened and institute that he called Le Laboratoire (sited in both Paris and Cambridge) as a space for artists, designers, scientists, and the general public to meet for exhibitions, performances, and discussions. Major exhibitions by artists and scientists were shown, as well as innovations developed by Edwards, his associates. That night, David suggested that I be a guest artist at the institute, and that we only needed to find a scientific partnership that made sense. I told him about meeting Dan the night before. We all connected shortly after and decided to move forward with something new.
The final cinch came with the invitation of another Harvard professor, as well as dear friend and colleague, Jill Johnson. Johnson arrived at Harvard in 2011, as part of the fulfillment of the Task Force on the Arts at Harvard, an initiative launched by President Drew Gilpin Faust to develop art-making through new degree programs, courses, and spaces. Johnson’s tenure was focused on dance research, expanding access and offerings, advancing social progress through the arts, and empowering emerging artists, innovators, and leaders. As a dancer, choreographer and movement researcher, and as someone who had worked with me in studio on several high-speed projects, Jill was uniquely suited to taking Dan’s suggested movement sequences (put together as he might for biological study) and processing through the mind of — dance.
Casting for this project was done through open call. We received thousands of submissions and saw many hundreds of individuals. 120 were selected.
Figure Studies has been shown internationally including in conjunction with interdisciplinary symposiums such as, "The Moving Mind" organized by the Pomona College Departments of Dance and Neuroscience. “The Moving Mind: A Forum for Dialogue Between the Arts and Sciences,” took place on the Pomona campus from October 3 through 5, 2013. It fostered opportunities for dialogue and experiential workshops in which those interested in the cognitive or neurosciences could test ideas through the processes of embodied exploration; Performing and visual artists were challenged to find insight into the creative process through the lens of research science; scholars in the humanities and social sciences were provoked to consider the human body in all its complexity. The symposium aimed to make apparent that creative thinking and the use of imagination are goals common to both artists and scientists.
Figure Studies was originally commissioned of the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College and Summerhall Arts Venue at the Edinburgh Festival with major support by Le Laboratoire.
FILM PRODUCTION
Director : David Michalek
Producer : Dorottya Mathe
Producer : Alexandra Johnes
Co-DP : Bob Bushfield
Movement Consultant: Dr. Daniel Lieberman
Movement Director : Jill Johnson
Movement Director: John Morris
First AD: Oliver Brooks
1st Assistant Cameraman: Marcos Herrera
2nd Assistant Cameraman : Chrissy Choe
Phantom Technician: Sasha Burdett
Post Production Supervisor: Manu Sawkar
Best Boy Electric : Bliss Holloway
Gaffer : Guy Morgan
Gaffer : Richard Mauro
Best Boy Electric/Grip : Alex Avena
Best Boy Electric/Grip - Gaffer : Eugene Malkin
Electric : Rich McDonald
Journeyman Electric: Joseph Bonura
Production Design: Joseph Polacik
Prop Assistant: Kathryn Vega
Key Hair & Make-up Artist : Frances Sorensen
Costume Designer : Karen Young
Assistant to Costume Designer : Maria Garcia
Set PA: Anthony Fatato
Set PA - Talent Wrangler : Adam Boncz
Set PA - Jack Holton Vinyl
Set PA - Ariel Merrick
Press
Pomona College Museum of Art
Claremont, CA
August, 2013
Galleria Poggiali e Forconi
Deficit (group show)
Curated by Gaia Serena Simionati
Florence, Italy
March 12 - May 19, 2013
Paris, France
October 2012
Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh, Scotland
August 3 - 29, 2012
Selected Criticism and Commentary:
Artribune Magazine
April 15, 2013
(prepared by Le Laboratoire, Paris)
BBC, The Review Show
August 30, 2012
https://list.co.uk/news/19524/david-michalek-figure-studies
The List
David Michalek’s “Figure Studies” at the Edinburgh Festival
Slo-mo studies of every-day movement make imperfection blur into beauty
Neil Cooper
“There’s something heroic about David Michalek’s three-screen sequel of sorts to his similarly-styled ‘Slow Dancing’. Seen largely naked, acting out routines of every-day movement, Michalek’s subjects – a woman with a double mastectomy, a bearded old man shifting bags of cement in his Y-fronts – become monumental pin-ups striking a pose, as every sinew and twitch is accentuated and buffed into shape. As a conscious form of homage to and reinvention of cinematic and photographic techniques pioneered in the 19th century by Eadweard Muybridge, Michalek’s film may look as glossy as a coffee-table magazine spread made flesh. As each figure blurs into the next, however, there’s a strength beyond the seductively hypnotic display, as imperfection blurs into beauty en route.
Summerhall, Edinburgh, until Thu 27 Sep
Links
Pomona College Museum of Art
Figure Studies
Claremont, CA
September 3 - December 22, 2013
http://dance.pomona.edu/movingmind/
Artribune Magazine
April 15, 2013
(prepared by Le Laboratoire, Paris)
BBC, The Review Show
August 30, 2012
Le Laboratoire
Figure Studies
Paris, France
October 2012
Edinburgh Festival
Figure Studies
Edinburgh, Scotland
August 3 - 29, 2012