Anatomy of a Scream

Revealing Internal Chaos

Claire Kim
MDes Mediums 2026
Jessica Situ
MDes Mediums 2026
Stacey Cho
HGSE LDIT 2025
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1 Anatomy of a Scream

What does the internal landscape of a scream look like? How can we visualize the physical manifestation of emotional turmoil? Drawing inspiration from surrealist art, most prominently René Magritte's "Le Double Secret" (1927), we explored the duality between external composure and internal chaos through a 3D visualization. By capturing a digital scan of a person in the act of screaming, we created a powerful representation where the subject's face peels away to reveal the tumultuous inner world beneath the surface, challenging the viewer to confront the raw, unfiltered expression of human emotion.

Using Grasshopper and Rhino as our digital tools, we designed a parametric simulation where the human form appears to combust and fragment, with particles exploding outward to show psychological intensity. This deconstruction of the figure serves as a metaphor for the way intense emotions can feel like they're literally tearing us apart from the inside. The resulting visualization bridges the gap between the visible and invisible aspects of human experience and affective states.

Project video
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2 A bursting scream
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3 Ensuing chaos