Smombie is a real-time generative computer graphics piece exploring our relationship with phones and the strange isolation they can create in public space.

A crowd of 3D figures wanders through an endless white void. They are together, but each person is absorbed by the small screen in their hands. Their faces are illuminated by their phones as they walk without really looking at where they are going.

From time to time, two people bump into each other. Their bodies bounce apart, changing direction, before they continue walking. Occasionally, someone looks up. For a brief moment they seem to notice the world around them, before lowering their head and disappearing back into their digital life.

There is nothing else in this world. No architecture. No landscape. No destination. The physical environment has almost ceased to exist. The only reality left is the one glowing from the screen.

The soundscape is generated in real time by the crowd itself. Movement, collisions and interactions become sound, creating an evolving composition that changes continuously with the behaviour of the system. Image and sound are never exactly repeated.

The crowd keeps moving together, endlessly connected and strangely alone.