Memento Mortem Mortis

Patrick LeMieux

Memento Mortem Mortis

Unity game for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux

Dimensions variable

Currently in development, forthcoming 2015

Memento Mortem Mortis simulates the stretched skull from Hans Holbein’s The Ambassadors (1533). Whereas Robert Lazzarini’s stretched skulls (2001) feature a variety of non-perspectival topological transformations applied to 3D geometry, Memento Mortem Mortis conflates the displaced picture plane from traditional anamorphic projection with the polygonal planes of a human skull through a graphic technique called texture mapping. Although the anamorphic effects of puzzle games like Portal (2007), Echochrome (2008), levelHead (2008), Fez (2012), and Miegakure (forthcoming) often revolve around a predetermined solution, in Memento Mortem Mortis each skull simply reveals a new level of anamorphic distortion. From a randomly generated maze to the multiple levels of digital distortion, the puzzle may have a solution, but it is not for us. It is picture planes all the way down.