Interface & Art

THRESHOLD

Eight minutes tracing how perception begins

Role
Author
Year
2026
Status
Live, four of six stages built
6
stages
8
minutes, unskippable
0
rendering libraries
0
bytes leaving the device

The problem

The subject is pre-verbal experience, so anything that reads as an interface breaks it. That rules out progress bars, navigation, settings, and the affordances that make software feel like software.

What we built

Decisions That Mattered

1.

Write the renderer

Raw WebGL2 with a downsample pyramid and frame-rate-independent timing, so the piece runs at the same pace on a phone and on a workstation with no rendering library in between.

2.

Let the audio lead

A low-pass heartbeat with a tempo ramp drives the sequence through the Web Audio API. The visual stages follow the audio timeline.

3.

Keep it on the device

Camera stages use on-device inference and IndexedDB. Nothing is uploaded and there is no analytics, because a piece about pre-verbal interiority cannot also be a data collection exercise.

What this demonstrates

Building against the metal when the medium demands it.

WebGL2Web Audio APIMediaPipeNext.jsIndexedDBPWA

Get in touch

Start a Project

Tell us what you are trying to build and what is in the way. We will tell you early if we are not the right fit.

starrybodies@gmail.com