Livi likes watching the world with her headphones on. Riding through open fields, she notices a record store standing alone in the meadow and decides to stop. Nearby, she meets Halmo, a stranger waiting at an isolated bus stop. A shared interest in music gives them a reason to talk, and they head inside together. While browsing, they notice a record cover change into a photo of the two of them, taken just moments earlier. Nobody else is in sight. Neither saw a camera. In a place this empty, someone seems to know they’re here. And what does Livi really know about the stranger beside her? I created the film using Cantina, with original characters and a dreamlike setting. I combined vintage clothing, open landscapes, and a warm record store interior to make the world feel familiar but slightly strange. Cantina character link: https://cantina.com/i/oy13g , https://cantina.com/i/y2xjh Cantina pilot: https://cantina.com/i/gfyoh

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Next performance: Saman dance. The idea began with two artworks that already felt theatrical in completely different ways. Benjamin Pollock’s Characters and Scenes, from Jack and the Giant Killer presents its figures almost like a cast waiting to be placed onstage, while Antonio Joli’s Capriccio with St. Paul’s and Old London Bridge offers a vast architectural setting that already resembles an elaborate theater set. I imagined what would happen if the characters stepped out of their printed roles, entered Joli’s grand painted space, and stopped performing as individuals. Saman became the bridge between them: a performance built on closeness, collective rhythm, and the transformation of many bodies into one coordinated visual unit. The characters are reorganized into a close seated formation and animated through movements inspired by Saman from Aceh: synchronized clapping, rhythmic pats to the thighs and chest, repeated forward bows, sharp upright recoveries, and coordinated left and right torso sways that accelerate together as the performance develops. These movements deliberately replace the individual poses of the toy-theater characters with a shared rhythm, making the contrast itself part of the work: eccentric characters from a British theatrical print suddenly moving with discipline and unity inside an eighteenth century architectural fantasy. Rather than claiming to reproduce traditional Saman literally, I use its distinctive synchronized movement and communal energy as the choreographic language that allows two unrelated historical artworks to become one new performance. Sources: Capriccio with St. Paul’s and Old London Bridge — Antonio Joli (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436782?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Characters and Scenes, from Jack and the Giant Killer, Plate 1 for a Toy Theater — Benjamin Pollock (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/682973?utm_source=chatgpt.com)Flora Link: https://app.flora.ai/view/js7as2y547y3tr666q2b49vadx8e0ewz Note: The final choreography is still an approximation rather than a fully accurate Saman performance. Due to current generation limitations, and because the intended motion-reference video was repeatedly blocked by Seedance 2.5, the dance had to be reconstructed through text-based movement direction instead. The result should therefore be read as a Saman inspired reinterpretation rather than a faithful reproduction of the traditional choreography.

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The Met, Rebuilt in Isometric transforms artworks and objects from The Met into a single museum seen through an isometric 3/4 top-down view. Instead of presenting the collection as isolated objects, I reimagined it as a miniature explorable world where architecture, circulation, display design, and artworks can all be understood at once. This elevated camera angle turns the museum into something between a diorama, a game environment, and an exhibition plan allowing historical works from different cultures and periods to coexist inside one stylized spatial system. The project is built through spatial recomposition: extracting forms, colors, and atmospheres from many separate works, then rebuilding them into themed galleries within one coherent isometric interior. Sculptures become focal monuments, decorative objects become display pieces, and historical artifacts help define the visual identity of each room. Rather than simply arranging references side by side, the work redesigns the archive as a navigable world viewed from above. Sources: Plaque with landscape (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/203661?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · The Puritan (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/12015?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Victory (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/12019?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · The Old Dragoons of 1850 (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/11866?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Standing poodle (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/6640?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · White Ogre Tihu (Katsina Figure) (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/717591?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Old Testament figures (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/44292?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Chimera (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/42554?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Tara, the Buddhist Savior (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/50799?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Jizō, Bodhisattva of the Earth Store (Kshitigarbha) (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/42589?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Armor (Gusoku) (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/25588?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Triad of Osiris, Isis, and Horus (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/546178?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Shabti of Seti I (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544763?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Amulet of a lion-headed Bastet (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544078?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Model Paddling Boat (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544211?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Figure personifying a spring (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/201635?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Nymph (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/201712?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Angels Bearing the Body of Saint Catherine to Mount Sinai (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/198637?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · The Morning Coffee (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/198674?utm_source=chatgpt.com). FLORA project: https://app.flora.ai/view/js7f93pyyexptrw6te7t9wzmwn8dyjf4

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Archive Angels: The Three Graces Recast begins with Pinturicchio’s The Three Graces, preserving the intimacy and visual rhythm of its three connected figures while recasting them with the confidence, glamour, and action-movie chemistry of a Charlie’s Angels-style trio. Instead of simply modernizing one Renaissance painting, I treated The Met’s archive as a visual wardrobe and world building kit drawing from historical landscapes, clothing, footwear, decorative objects, and arms to construct a single scene that could never have existed in one period. The work is intentionally built through archival recomposition: selecting fragments, removing them from their original functions, and giving them new relationships inside one coherent painted world. A devotional landscape can become the backdrop of an espionage tableau; nineteenth-century tailoring becomes contemporary agent wear; museum firearms become cinematic props; and the classical Graces become Archive Angels, moving freely across centuries. The result is less about reproducing history than about asking what new characters and stories can emerge when an archive is treated as raw creative material. Sources: The Three Graces — Pinturicchio (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/209270?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Goblet — Challinor, Taylor and Company (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/4125?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Our Lady of Valvanera (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/764091?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Smith & Wesson .44 New Model No. 3 Revolver (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/24973?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Gold-inlaid Colt Model 1851 Navy Revolver (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/788195?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Frock Coat (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/84364?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Bodice (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/81785?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Boots (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/90412?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Shoes (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/90440?utm_source=chatgpt.com) · Dieppe, France — Surf Beauties series (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/726555?utm_source=chatgpt.com). FLORA project: https://app.flora.ai/view/js7eb7gp2e31dt4h3cpgqbj3x98dy0py

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Eric Purba

For someone who finally dared to step forward