Horsemaning

Horsemaning is a darkly playful music video in which a disembodied head performs an algorithm-generated rap through a sequence of surreal, comedic, and increasingly dystopian environments. The piece examines identity as something detached and performing, even when the world around it collapses.

The work unfolds as a chain of nonsensical tableaus: a cheerfully rapping head inside snow globes, aquariums, and other impossible stages — a mind untethered from its body. Humor drives the first half, bending logic and subverting expectations. But the tone gradually shifts. By the final act, the character stands amid a ruined city, turning the absurd into a grim prophecy reflecting conflict, chaos, and a fraying global psyche.

Inspired by both early surreal cinema and the classic 1920s “horsemaning” photography prank, the project uses disembodiment as a metaphor: a personality performing in isolation while the world — and perhaps the body — moves on without it.

Built entirely through an end-to-end generative pipeline:
• Face reference & character design based on a single portrait of the artist
• Lip-sync performance generated via HeyGen Avatar 4
• Visual animation blended from Runway Gen-4, Higgsfield, and Kling 2.1
• Music production initiated in Udio and refined in Reaper with final mastering in Ozone

Artistic Context

Positioned at the crossroads of contemporary AI art, Dada absurdism, and surreal hip-hop performance, Horsemaning uses humor as a coping mechanism for catastrophe. It echoes the avant-garde tradition of confronting meaninglessness by embracing it fully — a vaudeville routine at the end of the world.