New York–based artist LaJuné McMillian combines live performance with new digital technology to create hallucinatory and ritualistic critiques of systems that commodify Black bodies and otherwise limit free expression. Working especially with motion-capture (witnessing) and 3D-modeling software, they transform Black dancers, performers, and the artist themself into beautiful avatars who move with energy and gracefulness within fantastic environments in response to spoken poems, prayers, and musical and extra-musical sounds.
As a child McMillian was an avid figure skater, and their interest in Black movement intensified during their time as the Director of Figure Skating in Harlem, where they taught girls of color about expressive movement and technology. They also inaugurated the Black Movement Library, an online database of avatars generated from recordings of Black performers, preserving this ephemeral aspect of Black culture and enabling the exploration of virtual worlds through movement—in the artist’s words, “transcending space, time, and oppressive social structures . . . while connecting us with our ancestors and the future.” McMillian’s marvelous works extend the concept of Black liberated realities, centering on the notion that technology can help reimagine a more empowered future for Black people and explode the legacy of centuries of bondage, constraint, abuse, and exploitation.
