Nothing Sapiens has created not just one world but a series of worlds that his characters inhabit as part of his Tamikan Space Project. Together with his partner Helirich, the company produces a series of Humanoid dolls along with their pet Tardigrades.
Q: Who is behind the Tamikan Space Project? Can you tell me more about it?
A; I (Timur Zeleev) am behind all the stories and characters of Tamikan Space. My nickname and brand ‘Nothing Sapiens’ was created around 2009 when I was beginning experimenting with ball-jointed dolls. The other essential part of the core team is Iryna ‘Helirich’ who creates printable 3D-models of staff like shoe soles and gadgets following my drafts and sketches, works on website and manages most of the email. We’ve been also collaborating with seamstresses and with people running and working in a resin casting workshop we are co-owning.
Q: Can you tell me about the creatures that have been introduced so far?
A: I make sculpts and concepts, having started making dolls more than ten years ago. First ones were original and fanart static figures. I was working in Mooqla company, first firm in Russia that made collectible fashion dolls of its own unique design since September, 2008 and until it was closed in 2016.
I was driven by the characters of the Tamikan Space worlds that first came to my mind in 2000 and dwelled and thrived in it since that winter night. I considered all the projects before launching of Tamikan Space as training while I was mastering sculpture, posability, fashion design, making accessories such as wigs and shoes, furniture and dioramas design. Thinking of it, there were plenty of them: INO, AmiGaTas, Tatar as major ones. INO dolls are predecessors of Aua, but they are stylized as artist toys, not fashion dolls. And we plan to develop Tatar one further, too—honouring my Kazan Tatar ancestry.
Q: Why did you choose to make resin BJDs of the characters?
A: I find the ball-jointed dolls the best means to show my characters personality in motion, thus creating new sci-fi reality. Resin is the best for such purpose because it allows to create a wide variety of effects and tints, and experimenting with different types of polyurethanes we choose the ones that best suit current purpose, a current doll, a character and accessories for him, her or it.
Q: Can you tell me about the creatures that have been introduced so far?
A: The characters introduced so far are part of a AAE trainees group; AAE (Academia Abriga de la Esperanza) or the Academy is a powerful organisation from this universe. We’ve got five of ten members of the group by now and it is already enough to publish some initial stories. Two of them are Aua amphibians whose culture is bio-technological, Naora Satu is an austronesian girl from a beautiful closed dystopian world, another one, an albino descendant of Bantu colonists, Ife Abeni grew up in a huge megapolis surrounded by jungle, Kaan Juurekanat, unaccustomed to planetary gravitation and life conditions, is from a nomadic transport polis spaceship.
Academy’s means and goals are centered around an anomaly allowing people to develop certain psychic powers and this demands an individual approach to every student to get most of them, and so they all acquire different professions and study different courses.
The students are of polar backgrounds and of various anthropological types, and it makes playing even more interesting both from design and plot points of view. And we shouldn’t forget about tardigrades, which are genetically modified creatures bred by Aua from tiny animals from Earth as walking gene banks, but they became a popular domestic pet on planets inhabited by Human race. As our creatures and bodies line is expanding, we will be able to unravel more and more of this plot and many others from different parts and locations of Tamikan Space!
Q: At this time, are you working on any new dolls?
A: Yes, I’m working on a couple of projects now, this autumn I’m going to show one of them, this one’s a kind of surprise; and the other one happened to be more time-consuming than I expected, so it should be ready in the first half of the next year. All I can say is that both are very sci-fi-ish and they will be first limited editions of Tamikan Space project.
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