Motion into Being

Questions of who and what qualifies as a person have become increasingly contentious as the agency of all beings—from nonhuman animals to corporations, and from ecosystems to artificial intelligence—has fractured legal and theoretical discourse. To chronicle these controversies, Craycroft has transformed the Fifth Floor Gallery of the New Museum into a site for producing an animated film, which she will develop over the course of the exhibition; visitors physically enter the stage where Craycroft shoots new footage every week for the duration of the residency. Drawing on traditions of folklore and fables, which often use anthropomorphism to narrate moral tales, the abstract animated film confronts the physical and philosophical lenses used to construct and qualify personhood.