| Leonardo/ISASTwith Arizona State University

Yacov Sharir

at University of Texas at Austin
Austin,
United States

Yacov Sharir is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art, Rubin Academy of Music and Dance, and danced professionally for thirty years including thirteen with the Bat-Shave dance Company. Awarded a two-year fellowship from the Banff Centre for the Arts, where he collaborated with Diane Gromala, and Marcos Novak on a virtual reality project entitled, "Dancing with the Virtual Dervish-Virtual Bodies." Received numerous National Endowment for the Arts Choreographic Fellowships Awards. He teaches computer-aided choreography, virtual reality, and multi-disciplinary art and technology graduate courses. He is a frequent keynote speaker at arts and technology conferences and symposia in the USA and around the world. Sharir explores the use of interactive technologies, wearable computing/devices, and the creation of manufactured cyber human characters for the purpose of augmenting all aspects of performance. He has recently carried out new research In the area of Second Life.