Hal Eagar -- Media Effects 
Creative 
- Philosophy
- Full
- Employment
- Skills
- Work history:
- Work Samples
Hal Eagar serves as Director of Digital Performance Institute, Technology Director of Gertrude Stein Rep & HERE Arts Center . He focuses on facilitating innovation in live performance technology, putting new media on stage. He designs digital puppets & animations for theatrical productions as well as providing technical solutions & creating innovative hardware & software for multi-screen projection, robotic projection, & real-time/live animation. He is currently absorbed in robots, projection, 3d animation, video, puppetry, & the occasional installation & internet artworks, sometimes all at once. Find out more about him & his projects at http://haleagar.com.
PhilosophyThe computer, the Internet & digital technology are simply tools—in order to be used most effectively—need to be available during all stages of production. The ability to pick up a projector & experiment at the drop of hat unlocks freedom & creativity. For this reason, I create, reprogram, or mash up software on the spot during a rehearsal & work to create tools & solutions that are affordable & accessible. The interaction between animation & theater allows my designs to become more than just video or just animation. By developing my own custom tools or systems to manipulate imagery in real time—whether in rehearsal or during performance—I can make "stage animations" & "digital puppets" that flow with the theatrical action. These skills provide the most potential during the creation & rehearsal phase of a production & for live presentations. Ultimately, when the media offers the flexibility to adapt to the moods of the actors or the director, it can even become a character in the piece. By exploiting the boundaries of digital media & the visceral magic of physical presence I feel a personal reconnection to the stories & art that surrounds us in a media saturated world. I hope to maintain some personal power over the messages constantly pushed toward me by advertising & electronic media by creating my own media, & by re-contextualizeing the electronic image into a physically present world. BiographyFor the last 13 years, media effects artist & computer programmer Hal Eagar facilitated innovation in live performance technology by putting new media on stage & exploring the boundaries between the freedom of the digital media & the impact of physical presence. His interest in integrating digital media & live performance began at Purchase College, where his thesis project Cyberspeare—Web site & multimedia theatrical event—was staged in 1995. He joined The Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre (GSRT) in 1996 as Technology Director. In this capacity, he creates content & custom software for projects involving streaming media, 2D & 3D animations, interactive environments, & projection effects. Eagar has created affordable tools & solutions, for multi-screen synchronization, live puppetry animation, live control of 3D animations, networked video & animation control including the MediaBeam, a movable projection system with anti-distortion software that allows the artist to reshape video images. All these tools are focused on solving problems in an affordable way, making them effective & available to artist. The MediaBeam has allowed nonprofits access to effects that would otherwise be too costly. In 2003, he created the Digital Performance Institute’s (DPI) equipment loan & artist residency programs, which were in response to his 9 years of computer & media consulting for GSRT & other artists & NY nonprofits. As Director of DPI, Hal has focused on the expansion & growth of the programs which have provided free equipment to 160 productions & residencies to 28 media artists. Through his consulting, he aims to share his knowledge with the greater arts community http://digitalperformance.org Hal also led the innovative production of Mr. Z: I was a Teenage Cryptologist, performed at GSRT & the List Gallery, M.I.T. He co-created two interactive Web artworks & gallery installations with visual artist Margot Lovejoy Confess & TURNS—which has toured internationally, Whitney Biennial 2002, ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie), the Queens Museum, Media Lab Madrid & several other museums. He works with digital artist Marek Walczak on projects such as Adrift, last shown at the New Museum NY, & TimeMaker, a commission by the Nabi Art Center Korea. In 2004, Eagar co-created an installation & performance series with puppeteer & visual artist Kate Brehm, OnRed, the installation extended through the entire One Arm Red theatrical space & onto the Internet. These six projects are all representative of his style of mixing of computer, network, installation & theatrical techniques. Eagar has also designed digital projections for GSRT (Ubu Roi, Making of Americans & The Sandman), Dreamweaver Productions (Continuum), & Mabou Mines (An Epidog), as well as video projection & special effects for puppet works with puppet artist & director Erin Orr. He Has worked with Directory Kristen Marting & Video Artist James Scruggs implementing environmental projections systems on [Orpheus, Disposable Men, Lush Valley, and Rus(h).] He also co-created the Video/Puppet piece "My Name is Hal" with Kate Brehm, which premiered at the Bangkok International Fringe Festival in 2005, toured as Video Associate with The Builders Association's production of Super Vision, & begun developing a Robot Theatre at DPI and as a Resident artist at HERE Arts Center. Find out more about him & his projects at http://haleagar.com.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Work SamplesDemo Reel (MPEG 640x480 40 meg)Currently offline as I test a new Web site Host. |