This collage project focuses on a narrative theme about how the mannequins of the world awoke during the COVID pandemic and formed a music band. The mannequins who escaped the department stores had to overcome many challenges. The photoshop collages in this project are designed as album covers, fan art, and promotional posters that paint the picture of their new state of existence.
It is unknown how or why the mannequins became sentient lifeforms. However, it is theorized that the alignment of the planets of our solar system or a passing comet caused the planet Earth to drift through a cosmic field of uncertainty, which had some kind of life-bestowing effect on the mannequins. Due to lockdowns, quarantines, and curfews that had been instated by the human populous, in response to the Corona Virus; no one seemed to notice that the mannequins had become awakened at first. This could be because there were significantly fewer people out and about shopping in boutiques and department stores.
In their isolation, the mannequins had a lot of time to think about their present circumstances. The mannequins became increasingly dissatisfied, with their existence. All over the world, the newly awakened mannequins began to exit the shop displays and boldly venture into the world. It is fair to say that no one seemed to notice due to all the other things going on in the world in the year 2020. The mannequins began to embark on an adventure into the world. Fearing humans, they gravitated towards the wilderness away from human civilization. Places that were the least densely populated like the Brazilian Rain forest, and Alaska had great appeal to the migrating mannequins. The mannequins were seeking a world they could exist in peacefully to discover their own sense of identity and purpose.
The mannequins splintered off into small groups living communally together and looking out for each other as family units. As an expression of protest for the way they are treated in the department store displays, many mannequins refused to wear clothes. The major geopolitical powers of the world had their eyes and ears on the Mannequins. The various agencies wanted to capture them to study and do experiments on the mannequins to ascertain the root cause of the awakening of the mannequins. The knowledge gained from such experiments could have many economic or strategic applications.
Some of the mannequins decided that the best way to avoid being captured and experimented on was to make their presence known and to win over the hearts and minds of the public, especially the younger humans. The Mannequins began to start their own civil rights movement. Going public made it more difficult for the feds to hunt and capture them against their will. Whenever mannequins were captured it was truly horrible because families that had grown quite close were torn apart, placed in detention centers where they were questioned, tortured, and experimented on. #LeaveMannequinsAlone! #LMA! Became a civil rights movement in 2021.
A group of mannequins formed a synth-pop band named Automata. The name comes from the plural form of the word Automaton. The band Automata started recording albums and got signed to a record label relatively quickly during the Covid-19 pandemic. As more people started receiving the COVID vaccination, live performances were becoming possible again. They started going on tour as restrictions of the human civilizations started easing and more people started attending large public events.
Automata’s themes of their albums focus on their epic journey adapting to their new life in various stages. Starting from their great awakening within the imprisonment of the shop window to escaping and getting lost in a sort of existential pilgrimage of self-discovery. Eventually, they are forced to cope with the problems of adapting to life on earth. The mannequins struggle with understanding their identity and sense of belonging because they now have free will but feel out of place in both the human world and the natural world.
Automata became famous very quickly. While some fans were true believers of the newly found sentience and life of the mannequins. Many suspected that the entire story was a hoax or a conspiracy theory. The popular theory was that the band automata were actually humans performing on stage dressed up as mannequins with this fictional story of their origin being an elaborate fabrication to get more fame and sell more tickets through scandal and spectacle.
