Vega & Enso — Rafe Johnson

Between client work I run a personal research thread on embodied AI — what makes an artificial companion feel alive, and what it’s actually for. Vega came first, a spatial agent; Enso is its evolution, the same questions reshaped into a product. Both are living works in progress.

Vega — the spatial agent

Vega is a spatial companion prototype — an exploration of how spatial agents look, move, and build a relationship with you, spanning 3D design, technical art, and product design.

I chose particles as its form: a liquid, adaptive shape that reshapes with the conversation and gives the agent clear ways to express listening, thinking, and talking. Voice and reasoning run on Eleven Labs and OpenAI.

Fig. 01 — Vega, seaside intro

Fig. 02 — Voice commands

Fig. 03 — Particle form

Fig. 04 — Waveform study

Vega particle form exploration — Fig. 05 — Form exploration

Fig. 06 — Vega, in the room

Early Vega concept sketches — Fig. 07 — Early sketches

Fig. 08 — Particle experiments

Fig. 09 — Forms & states

Enso — from agent to product

Enso carries Vega’s questions into a product — an embodied AI companion for managing your goals and focuses, visualised as fluid, interactive bubbles rather than fixed lists and folders. It’s aware of everything in the app, learns from your conversations, and can act on what you tell it.

The form matters as much as the function: Enso should feel alive without tipping into the uncanny valley, so I deliberately avoid mimicking human behaviour. It’s an early prototype — the core features are built out, with a first round of user testing done.

Fig. 10 — Day one

Fig. 11 — Session capture

A recorded session with Enso — moving through goals and focuses in conversation.

Fig. 12 — Enso

Fig. 13 — Form study

Form study — how Enso's shape shifts as it moves through its states.

Enso app interface — Fig. 14 — Interface still

Enso in a listening state, with ears surfacing on the character

Fig. 15 — Listening state

Ears surface on the character when Enso is listening.

The project wound down after I decided to join Tolan full time. I’d had plans to keep developing it, and may yet return to it.

Credits

Everything — Rafe Johnson