Taking Mary Shelley's well-known Frankenstein novel as a point of departure, Daniel Tuomey developed a plan for an animated film about an underlying theme: that of repressed masculinity. He wanted to translate that into a story about opportunities and potential liberation. “Where the novel treats the moment when creation comes to life as a primordial scene of horror, I will try to re-imagine it as a moment of possibility, in which established structures and practices can be questioned.” Tuomey wanted to delve into story and animation techniques, through theoretical research into art-historical models of animation in relation to the monstrous and transgression – including the Boris Karloff films with their parody of masculinity. He wanted to process these principles and notions of gender in a short film.

This fits in with Tuomey's ongoing research into the construction of masculinities. Such as the Bachelor Pad Museum, an earlier R&D project, which he built in his studio in the Wolphaertstraat in Charlois. Tuomey has lived in Rotterdam since 2017, where he has already participated in projects in Het Wilde Weten, Showroom Mama, Slash, Het Gemaal, de Player, Worm, Available and the Rat and more. Before that he studied in Dublin and at the Piet Zwart Institute and he stayed through artist-in-residencies in Scotland and Athens. The committee speaks of a stimulating and humorous proposal with the right momentum for the artist.

So Tuomey set to work, looking for innovative ways to tell Frankenstein's story through a wide variety of techniques and sources of inspiration. It went from classical sculpture and European landscape painting through cartoons to contemporary online culture. He combined his own drawings with animation techniques, inspired by conversations with colleagues, by Mark Fisher's text 'Gothic Materialism', by genres such as Japanese animation. This is how he built up an 18-minute film. A polyphonic work with dramatic narrative, storytellers challenging each other, horror, romantic poetry, and a revolutionary character that does not fit into existing categories.

The result is on YouTube, was shown online from April to June 2021 via WET Film, has been submitted to film festivals, and Tuomey presented it to Available & The Rat. He is happy with the result but thought it was a 'monolithic animation project' that lasted endlessly. Not anymore. He does, however, want to explore new directions with the animation techniques he has acquired. “I think a lot about creating interactive computer programs, little games that combine animation with writing and other visuals.”