Maya Man’s generative work (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes draws from Hans Christian Andersen’s 1845 fairytale, “The Red Shoes”, and its many cultural adaptations. Man’s generative work scrapes user-generated posts from Depop, highlighting how desire is often constructed online through intimate, amateur product images and persuasive descriptions of secondhand red shoes. Each listing appears onscreen in a live generative performance with algorithmic sound, creating a work that, like Andersen’s protagonist, dances endlessly without repetition. Through the connection of fairytales, consumer culture, and digital aesthetics, Man underscores how cycles of longing, consumption, and disposal shape contemporary expressions of girlhood and femininity.
