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Maximiliano Pantoja
Creative Engineer for Software, AI & Interaction
New to Contra
Maximiliano is ready for their next project!
I wanted to reinterpret this Xoloitzcuintli sculpture as a symbolic guardian at the entrance to Mictlán, the underworld in Mexica mythology.
The idea comes from the spiritual role the Xoloitzcuintli was believed to have in guiding the dead through their journey to the afterlife. Rather than treating the sculpture only as an archaeological object, I imagined it restored to its original purpose: standing at the threshold between the living world and the world of the dead.
The scene places the sculpture beside a portal. Outside the portal is a grounded, realistic cemetery during Día de Muertos; inside is a more magical interpretation of Mictlán, filled with light, marigolds, architecture, candles and a sense of celebration rather than fear. The contrast is meant to represent death not as an ending, but as a passage.
The Xoloitzcuintli becomes the connection between both worlds — a companion, guide and guardian — reflecting the meaning these dogs held for people at the time the sculpture was created.
Original artwork — The Met:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/319243
FLORA project:
https://app.flora.ai/join-project/6ba85ee2-d21d-44f6-90dc-886fd3f252ff
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Interactive Portfolio — Creative Engineering & 3D Web Experience
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Portfolio website for Daniel Cubas — designer, photographer & visual director
Designed and built a static portfolio site for Daniel Cubas, a Spanish visual director working across photography, graphic design, and short film. The site presents his work in three sections — Photography, Design, and Short Films — through an editorial, image-first layout that lets the work speak without competing UI noise.
What I did:
Developed a custom design system from scratch, derived from an existing editorial flyer the client had, extending its typographic and layout logic into a full responsive site
Built the site with plain HTML/CSS/JS — no framework, no build step, no dependencies — so it loads instantly and is trivially cheap to host (GitHub Pages)
Designed a content pipeline where the client adds new projects by dropping images and a markdown file into a folder, with zero code editing required
Established strict visual rules: a monochrome palette (black/bone) with a single accent color used in exactly three places, two-typeface system (Oswald for headlines, Inter for body), no icons, no rounded corners, no shadows — treating photography itself as the primary material rather than illustration
Handled project detail pages with embedded video support (Google Drive) for the short film section, and a responsive image-grid home page
Result: A fast, maintenance-free portfolio that the client can update independently, with a distinct, disciplined visual identity that avoids generic "agency" design clichés.
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Cadenza — Multi-Agent AI Development Workspace
Cadenza is an experimental AI-powered development workspace designed to coordinate multiple coding agents within a single workflow.
The project explores how tools like Codex, Claude Code, and OpenCode can collaborate across different parts of the software development process — from understanding requirements and planning solutions to generating, reviewing, and refining code.
Rather than relying on a single AI assistant, Cadenza focuses on agent orchestration, assigning different responsibilities to each model while keeping the developer in control.
Under the hood, Cadenza runs agents as separate processes, manages their tasks and context, and coordinates their outputs through a shared workspace, making it possible to combine different AI models in the same development session.
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