Our digital face puppet began life as Arts Council England research and development project to explore the combination of back-projected film and animation with puppetry and sculpture. The translucent fibreglass face was created by our associate artist, Mel Roberts, who later, through Manchester International Festival’s Creative Lab ’19 initiative, joined forces with pioneering developer and coder, Jo Portus, to develop Efe’s abilities.
Now Efe truly comes to life. Operated digitally, rather than mechanically, Efe’s projections and expressions are controlled by the puppeteer who uses an app to transmit his or her own facial movements.