Surrealist horror voodoo doll + nonsensical phrase generator
Live Site 3D Model Code Tumblr InspoDinild was spawned in response to (and named after) a Tumblr stream featuring strangely grotesque photo composites, this piece provides a novel interface for generating nonsensical phrases: through interaction with a digital entity conceptually similar to a voodoo doll. Each selection is made by inserting a crystalline needle into the surface of the doll head, creating a string of short phrases over time in order of insertion.
Although based on a political figure, I see this experience as an abstract commentary on control and manipulation, as well as an auditory/visual exploration of the grotesque. My initial aim was to develop a system capable of synthesizing arbitrary words and phrases from a limited set of predefined sounds and their corresponding mouth shapes; the final piece is more limited, with predefined words composed of a limited set of primary mouth shapes with accompanying audio.
I produced all 3D + texture + audio assets for this piece. Audio samples are highly distorted clips sampled from interviews and political rallies. The doll head was sculpted and retopologized in Blender with normal maps derived from real high-resolution face scans.