As part of our
ALFA-ARKIV iPad app, my team created an interactive novel comprised of classified Russian intelligence files, including the confessions of a detained woman named
Rhea Numitorova. Falsely accused of being a jihadist terrorist, she reveals through her writings the truth of her remarkable upbringing in a secret spy school run by the private military corporation,
Alfa-Tsentr.
Knowing we had to achieve an authentic young female voice, I enlisted the help of the award winning Israeli author,
Shani Boianjiu to write the confessions. Her alternatingly candid and lyrical writing style provided an intimate window into the mindset of characters isolated from society who mistakenly happen upon the outside world via the Internet.
After the texts were translated from English into Russian, Ukrainian illustrator,
Anna Rusakova then created journal entries in her distinct Cyrillic manuscript, along with many gorgeous illustrations. Other illustrators from the USA, Argentina, Czech Republic and Russia supplemented the work to provide a richly textured series of artifacts.
Besides conveying the psychological stress of Rhea, a big part of the work involved documenting the unique religion of Rhea and her Junsui “sisters”. To create a compelling cosmology, my partner
Rob Auten and I drew upon numerous religions including Vedic, Nordic, Judaic, Ariosophic, and Orthodox Christian traditions. The result was a highly eclectic doctrine, steeped heavily in the girls’ own personal experiences. As you can see from the gallery of moodboards below, elemental and anatomical motifs played a big part in the visual symbolism of the Junsui's religion and thus were an important part of art direction.
Other intelligence files, which included arrest records, electroshock therapy observations, and policy memorandums were done in a style resembling official Russian documents. With the help of dedicated consultants like former Army intelligence analyst,
Anthony Anrig we referenced real places, unit naming conventions, military and spy tradecraft jargon. We even brought on NASA / ESA architect,
Tomas Rousek to design floorpans for our subterranean laboratory and school complex at Yamantau mountain known as
Alkino-2 (a real facility, although likely less luxurious than our design).
