ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
Our monthly spotlights on local creatives in the industry making an impact. Each artist brings something powerful to the scene while pushing the limits of their work.
LISA JAMHOURY
Lisa Jamhoury is a new media artist exploring and redefining media as we know it. For decades now, our primary input with the technology around us has been contained to keyboard and mouse, and eventually multi-touch with the introduction of touch-first devices. We were also forced to learn and speak the same language as the device we were using, whether that was through coding, or interacting with devices and files we needed to tell the computer something specific on its terms, not ours.
Lisa is exploring this intersection of technology and people as well as creating stunning art through her creative practice that uses motion capture, and the human body combined with Epic’s Unreal Engine to generate immersive experiences to show what’s possible with new input methods. Her experience spans several industries, roles, and responsibilities starting with education at Pace University and New York University.
At Pace University, Lisa obtained a BA in Political Science as she originally began the pursuit of being an international lawyer focusing on international injustices, and political issues. Through her work with the United Nations, she was able to learn and understand the issues uniquely from the perspective of diplomats but was frustrated with the slow pace of change. Lisa was here to help create change on the administrative and legal level but was assigned to the media team. She initially was frustrated with this decision as she felt it wasn’t where action or change was.
Lisa quickly understood the power of media and narratives as the narrative controlled people’s emotions, interests, and even the flow of resources.
From here her interest in creating change in society grew deeper. Lisa believes there are two ways you can create change, the first is controlling the narrative meaning having control and a hand in what people are seeing and talking about. The second way is to create spaces that allow people to be open to change and feel the comfort to approach and discuss change, issues, and experiences together. These ideas are what sparked the interest in Lisa to create and pursue art as well as her other work. She tells us “I believe that art really creates the spaces for people to feel openness”.
After working for several years in different social change organizations, Lisa obtained her Master’s Degree in Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University. It was here she started exploring virtual reality, extended reality, and machine learning. Her initial goal of creating VR movies evolved into a broader exploration of the intersection between the physical body and technology. While she jokes about not creating a VR film yet, she has made some incredible art shows, and experiences like Maquette.
Lisa described Maquette as, “a project that combines contemporary circus and motion capture along with gaming technology”. This project operates using Epic’s Unreal Engine which is typically used for game development and exploration, but in this case, is live-fed with motion capture data from live performers to create breathtaking art brought to life live in front of the audience. The theme around Maquette is “capture”, Lisa shares with us - she expands this thought with the question “what does it mean to live through a captured version of yourself?” This means, what does it mean for us to be now living through captured versions of ourselves? Through avatars, representations, and now live captured versions we are now brought to life digitally to be present in new ways inside digital worlds. Maquette questions this live for the audience to see, and for us to explore.
Looking forward, as a professor at NYU, Lisa continues to inspire change through her art and teachings, bridging the gap between human experience and evolving digital landscapes. Her work is not just about art; it’s about creating spaces for dialogue and understanding in a rapidly changing world. As well as touring her work to grow the movement and social change she is passionate about. Lisa is committed to social change, and pushing the new media boundaries in exceptional ways through her project Maquette as well as through her own creative studio. Recently, she has also become a lifetime member of Onassis ONX a workspace and creative studio giving the resources needed to continue the work she is completing in addition to being a member of NEW INC, the art, design and technology incubator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art.
Lisa Jamhoury creates incredible interactive and stunning work brought to life in all-new ways through cutting-edge technology and motion capture devices. Her work explores the connection between human experience and the digital world as we know it. As the world evolves, and digital input changes, how can we as humans evolve with it? Lisa has found herself exploring this for many years as life experiences have brought the question of physicality to the forefront. Through her education and experience in several social change and narrative-driven organizations, Lisa understands how impactful narrative and storytelling are to the public, and our experience as humans. Through this inspiration and drive to understand more, Lisa has spent two decades creating tangible social change in the form of art, opening spaces to discuss change, as well as educating others in her footsteps.
