Empyrean

A tale of genesis told within a fantastical world where the human body is intertwined with that of plants

The focus was on building a space and mood that combined imagery from Hindu mythology with the aesthetics of Japanese Butoh performance art. The sets, props and characters were built using a combination of traditional and digital techniques, for instance, the eight-stringed lute, which was designed and fabricated in foam using traditional hand carving method and then augmented with digital visual effects.

From the End of Heaven

A story procedurally generated from music and ancient manuscripts of ritual praxis

Directed for Australia’s Gods of Eden, this music video investigates the lyrical and musical themes within their debut album, titled “From the End of Heaven.” The concept album is inspired by the Paleocontact Hypothesis, which is a theory suggesting that ancient civilizations and monuments such as the Pyramids of Egypt were facilitated by extraterrestrial aliens and the theory is based on interpretations of ancient manuscripts.

In reaction to this theme, a computer program was written that would procedurally use their music to extract and assemble phrases from an ancient manuscript authored circa 1000BCE called Atharvaveda, which defines ritual practices of Hinduism. The program generated several poems which were later adapted into a screenplay for the video.

Eden

A metaphor for the culture of consumerism

Directed for British band TesseracT, this music video theatrically and metaphorically addresses the suffering of “eden” due to the contemporary culture of consumerism, a theme that is prevalent in the band’s lyrics.

Our culture which is vastly dependent on mass production and consumption rarely addresses the side effects of this phenomenon with clarity or transparency. This often leads to skepticism towards the seemingly perfect images that the industries strive to achieve. In the production of this tale, the focus was on cost effective methods and then extending the sets using visual effects techniques and deliver a coherent visual narrative through cinematics.

Wine Poynt

A 2D animated story about finding the best wine for a special occasion

WinePoynt developed a smart-phone app that provides personalized wine recommendations based on food pairing and previous purchase history. In developing ideas for their commercial, a user poll was conducted and the data suggested that customers were more likely to buy wines when it was recommended by a close friend or a relative. This insight lead to the design and creation of Vinnie, a simple character that would become the friendly face for the app.

A story was developed around the character where he faces the challenge of finding the perfect wine for a date. The focus was on developing slick and entertaining media for smart-phone screens and online web viewing. Vinnie later became the icon for the brand and a limited edition stuffed toy of the character was released.

Lucid Rushi

A performance performed from inside a dream

In investigating the possibilities of conversing from within sleep, a system to control a digital puppet from within a lucid dreaming state was built. I practiced lucid dreaming for six months using several techniques that were proposed in Stephen LaBerge’s research papers. This resulted in a gallery showing where I performed a thirty-second-long choreographed piece from within a lucid dream using the digital puppet system.

Plastic Poetry

A 50’ sculpture made from recycled plastic bags, celebrating the ban on plastic bag

A plastic sculpture was designed upon commission to be a token of the Austin’s city-wide ban on plastic bags. A group of 20 workers were assembled to collect plastic bags from various grocery stores around Austin, and were instructed to create a 50’ curtain formed by meshing the bags together using lark’s knot. The resulting curtain was draped in between two prominient buildings on the University of Texas campus.

Vindaloo Regular

A soft edged font, inspired by Indian cuisine, designed for web

This font culminated from an attempt to design a subtle ambiguity in the presence of the serifs. Inspried by the roundness and texture of classical Indian cusisine, this font attempts to capture the taste in a visual sense.

I Control Nothing

The body becomes a brush to paint gestural forms suspended in time

Every frame captured with a camera has an implicit indication of time. It is a temporal memory of light at an instant and the frame makes visible a subjective representation of that instant. Precisely 36,500 frames are merged to form singular images using a computer program authored by the artist. The program preserves the brightest portions within every exposure. What then becomes visible in the finished image is a sculptural representation of the motion of the performer separated from the dimension of time. The motion involves part choreographed, part improvised attempts at tracing traditional brush script-letterforms using the human body while it interacts with a narrow field of light. The intersections of the body with the light becomes the brush with which to paint organic sculptural forms into the memory of the camera.

For Young Minds

A series of ongoing illustrations for children