Motion Capture After Anthropocentrism: Toward Other-Than-Human Choreographic Practices
Dr Shuntaro Yoshida and Dr Masatomi Iizawa
Registered on Zenodo: 7 February 2026
Available on Zenodo DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18506097
This is a preprint version of an article submitted for Leonardo (MIT press). The final published version will be made available by the publisher.
Abstract
Motion capture (MoCap) technology has received significant attention as a tool for quantitative movement analysis. Rapid advances in machine learning have made MoCap more accessible and easier to use. However, critical reflection on MoCap’s pragmatic paradigm—how it is used in dance creation, education, and analytics—has not progressed. From a dance research perspective, this paper argues that MoCap implicitly presupposes a choreographic vocabulary centered on the human body. Furthermore, from a computational complexity perspective, it notes that living organisms do not perceive or regulate their bodies through recognition processes comparable to those employed by MoCap technologies. In response, the authors propose reframing MoCap as a navigational medium that facilitates interactions among bodies, environments, and other-than-human beings.