Jewish World Review July 30, 2001/ 10 Menachem-Av 5761
Talking Heads
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WHEN it comes to sharing his L.I.P.S., Richard Gans is as excited
as a kid in a candy store.
He's showing off Jennifer, who he sometimes calls Miss Givenchy, and Gil, who wears a
jaunty hat. These L.I.P.S. are no ordinary ones, however. They're also known as Gans'
Life Imaging Projection System.
"I make a cast of the face from a model and combine it with a talking animation effect
that is a 3-D humanoid," explains Gans, settling into his favorite butterfly-style chair in
his office at the Yale University Digital Media Center for the Arts, where he is artist in
residence. Gans owns a patent for the technology, which has been used to sell makeup
(thus, Miss Givenchy) and to welcome visitors to museums. He also sees applications
for Web sites.
A long-time video producer, Gans stumbled upon the idea for L.I.P.S. by chance.
"I was looking for new ways to bring subjects to life. I had a faceless mannequin. I
projected a little Chasidic boy's face on it. I had the mannequin and I had a slide
projector. It was just a cool, fun thing to do," remembers Gans of the moment eight years
ago. "I thought I had something here; I hadn't seen it anywhere. I ran to the patent office."
Gans got his patent, although he wasn't the first to try such a projection. Another inventor
had used a film projector in front of a mannequin back in 1927.
"The technology wasn't there. Film projectors broke; video
was non-existent. The art went into obscurity," said Gans,
who was awarded his patent in 1996.
"It supposedly gives you a competitive edge for 13 years, I
believe, to explore your invention. It gives you time to
bring it to the market without competition," he notes.
Despite the patent, Gans doesn't consider himself a
technophile. "This was more about bringing subjects to
life than it was about technology," he confides.
While the startling real L.I.P.S. heads have been used commercially, he sees a higher
purpose to his work. He is working with Haskins Laboratory in New Haven, which does
research into speech perception.
"So much information comes from visual information. Children in the deaf community can
use this technology to learn lip reading. There's a potential these heads will be used to
teach the deaf. That's something I never thought of before I came here," he says with
wonder. Gans is also hoping to find ways to combine the technology with his strong
Jewish spirit.
"I wanted a means of Jewish artistic expression and found myself kind of usurped into
commercial potential for the last five years," says Gans.. "I look at myself more as an emerging artist at this point in my life.
For me, it's bringing together the creative tools toward a meaningful spiritual goal." A
documentary producer, he is a keyboardist, who just got a new grand piano, and often
composes music for his works.
Gans has a number of ideas for how to blend technology, art, and his spiritual
aspirations.
"I'd like to see if there's some way for these talking heads to be messengers, whether
they're biblical characters or taking Jewish texts to visual interpretation, translating
Jewish texts into visual imagery, blessings, prayers, the Shema, a portion of the Torah,
prophets, Moses," he muses.
"I've heard articles against 'theme park Judaism.' I'm for anything that creatively reinvents
and infuses Judaism with meaning, whether that is a new musical service or the use of
the arts. Harnessing technology to bring this experiential virtual reality world to bring
people into Jewish spiritual reality is a wonderful goal. I feel that I have a mission to help
bring that about.
"I want to enter art in the service of G-d. The gift of expression is a gift from G-d. To be
able to praise G-d through that gift is one," he reflects.
Gans also has a project that is his dream-his ultimate blend of technology, art and
religion. "There's going to be a planetarium show called 'How I Wonder.' It will use
multimedia immersion to illustrate the creation story, Genesis," he enthuses. "I'm
forming The Wonder Foundation, which explores spirituality in children. Children love to
talk about G-d, they have in their minds a picture of G-d."
He knows there is the danger of his talking heads becoming "pop culture."
But Gans has made a firm commitment to ensure that his L.I.P.S. will make a difference.
"The challenge is to elevate the art to a meaningful expression."
For information about Richard Gans' "The Wonder Foundation," contact him at (203)
Mara Dresner writes for the Connecticut Jewish Ledger. Comment by clicking here.
By Mara Dresner