The OpenEnded Group is a digital art collective comprising Marc Downie, Shelley Eshkar, and Paul Kaiser. They are known for their advances in dance technology (especially motion-capture), non-photorealistic rendering, and the use of artificial intelligence in art.
In dance, the OpenEnded Group has collaborated with prominent choreographers to create both installation art and stage pieces. With Merce Cunningham, they created Hand-drawn Spaces (1998),[1], BIPED (1999),[2] and Loops (2001–2008); with Bill T. Jones, they created Ghostcatching (1999) [3] and 22 (2005); and with Trisha Brown, they created how long does the subject linger on the edge of the volume...(2005).[4]
The OpenEnded Group has also created noteworthy public art installations. Pedestrian (2002) projected virtual figures directly on city sidewalks.[5] Successive commissions by the Mostly Mozart Festival of Lincoln Center placed two works outside Avery Fisher Hall: Enlightenment (2006) [6] and Breath (2007). Recovered Light (2007) illuminated the eastern facade of the York Minster with live reconstructions of the underlying stained glass.[7]
In 2008, The OpenEnded Group initiated the Field project, an open source integrated development environment for making digital artworks. Concurrently it released the code base for its collaboration with Merce Cunningham, Loops, as open source, with Cunningham issuing a Creative Commons license for the underlying motion-capture data of his performance.[8]
Current commissions include Horizon, a large interactive public artwork for Atlanta Airport, and Upending, a stereoscopic theater piece for EMPAC.