Cindi Mayweather (the heroine of Janelle Monáe's masterful 'Metropolis Suite') is an android who falls in love with a human, a transgression so revolutionary that she is scheduled for immediate disassembly.
Monáe's work speaks a rich language of afrofuturism: smithing technology, poetry and music to illustrate parables around systemic oppression, femininity, queerness, race and poverty. Through a morass of obstacles, Cindi leads a powerful resistance -- one rooted in pride, art, faith and love.
Metropolis affirms the humanity of love, the technicality of oppression, and examines the boundaries of intersectional personhood within each.
One of the many invitations of Monáe work is to question what makes us human. Is Cindi, an AlphaPlatinum9000, created mechanical, woman, or both? In spite of her programming, she falls in love, pursues her freedom, and creates art which changes the world.
This project is attempting to realize a sliver of that ambition: can an algorithm make things that are beautiful? More precisely, can I create a mechanism which routinely creates diverse images that make me think, feel, pause or smile? Can we dream of electric sheep?
Maybe. Take a look at my progress, and let me know what you think.