Max Epperson is a designer and artist from Denver, CO and based in Chicago, IL.

EXHIBITIONS
2026 — A Call for Values Poster Exhibtion
2026 — Typeforce 14
2025 — BMoCA ARTMIX
2024 — Digerati Experimental Media Festival

HOW TO MAKE A GOLEM

2024

Video / 3D / AR / Printmaking

ROLES
Creator and Director: Max Epperson
Voice: Judy Wolffe and Max Epperson
Music: Peter Ashmore
Interview Excerpts: Gertrude Strauss

PROJECT DURATION
5 months

TOOLS
Premiere Pro / Resolume Arena / Blender / Kiri Engine / 8th Wall / Fusion 360 / Ableton Live / Pfeil Carving Tools

OVERVIEW

How To Make A Golem is a multimedia art installation that intertwines a 15-minute short film, an augmented reality (AR) gallery, and a linoleum block print to bring to life my great grandmother’s story as a ceramicist and a survivor of the Holocaust.

Here, the golem from Jewish folklore is paired alongside her tale and her pottery as a metaphor for art that keeps stories alive and stands against any and all oppression.

In order to bring this film to life, I 3D-scanned dozens of my great grandmother's ceramics and animated the models in Blender. When merged with family photos and my great grandmother's own words (voiced by my grandmother), these animations weave together a narrative of my great grandmother's experiences fleeing Nazi Germany, struggling as an immigrant in the U.S., and finally finding a home for her family and her artistic pursuits.

Given the themes of survival, artistic creation, and storytelling present in golem folklore, as well as the similarity between the clay creature and my great grandmother’s clay creations, the golem serves as a central theme within the installation.

SHORT FILM

I began the project by 3D-scanning my great grandmother's ceramics—some of which are housed in the Beck Archives at the University of Denver—using the mobile photogrammetry app Kiri Engine.

I then cleaned up the 3D scans in Fusion 360, and brought them into Blender to begin animating and rendering.

3D photogrammetry scan of circular vase

3D photogrammetry scan of round jar

Cleaning up the 3D scans in Fusion 360

Early render of animation using 3D scans of my great grandmother’s pottery

Simultaneously, I was gathering dozens of images related to my great grandmother, her artwork, and her family from scrapbooks, photo albums, and wherever else they may have been hidden.

I then brought these photos in to Photoshop do some slightly color or noise adjustments. In Resolume Arena, I was able to create an effect that jumped from one area of a photo to the next, while also adding subtle glitch effects to the images to create textural variation. These photos-turned-videos served as the basis for the short film portion of the project.

Zoomed-in “jumping” effect made in Resolume Arena

Through a long process of gathering footage, animating the 3D models, rendering (and re-rendering), editing, and recording voice and music audio, I finally completed the short film portion of How to Make A Golem. You can see the full film above, and below are a selection of fraames from the short film.

AR GALLERY AND PRINT

For the AR gallery portion of the project, I used the platform 8th Wall to create an AR scene that can track 3D models and photos to an image marker. Any audience member with a phone can scan a QR code to access the AR gallery, point their camera at an image marker, and explore a collection of my great grandmother’s pottery and family photos in an augemented reality environment.

Instead of just making the QR code and image marker for the AR gallery a thoughtless printout, I wanted to integrate them into an artwork in the form of a hand-carved linoluem block print to stand alongside the short film.

I started by designing the layout for the linoleum block print in Photoshop. The design features markings from one of my great grandmother’s pottery pieces, a QR code, as well as the Hebrew word used to activate the golem: "emet," or "truth." Much like how “emet” is used to activate the golem, the QR code embedded in the print design serves as the activation site for an AR gallery.

After finishing the design, I traced the image onto the linoleum block, and then hand-carved and hand-printed the block to create the final artwork.

RECOGNITION

How to Make A Golem was an Official Selection for the 2024 Digerati Experimental Media Festival and screened alongside other experimental films in the Rebel Animations Category at the Sie Film Center.

“Rebel Animations showcases the most traditional animated shorts featured in our festival, yet these films challenge norms with subversive themes or innovative structures. This program brings together works that offer fresh perspectives through classic animation techniques, each film rebelling against the status quo and inviting viewers to explore the unconventional.”

How To Make A Golem was also showcased in the 2024 ATLAS Expo at the Univeristy of Colorado Boulder. The exhibtion feature the short film, as well as the the AR gallery and prints I had created in connection with the project.

EMAIL
maxepperson@gmail.com

INSTAGRAM
@maxeppersonart

LINKEDIN
https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-epperson/

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