Tangerine Dreams

Cultivating collective futures at the Cade Museum.

I premiered the prototype in January 2026. A version with an open-source large language model premieres in April 2027.

I presented the first prototype on the closing day of Afrofuturism Week, produced by CAME at the Cade, in January 2026. The photographs on this page are from that showing.

Tangerine Dreams, first prototype at the Cade Museum, photograph 1 of 6 — First prototype, Afrofuturism Week, Cade Museum, January 2026.

Tangerine Dreams is a generative audiovisual installation combining MIDI input, procedural visuals, synthesized sound, and text-to-speech. Sixteen MIDI notes (60–75) each trigger a distinct dream vision: fruit dreams, present tangerines, future tangerines reflecting on speculative futures.

Tangerine Dreams, first prototype at the Cade Museum, photograph 2 of 6 — First prototype, Afrofuturism Week, Cade Museum, January 2026.

The work runs on custom p5.js software connected to a Playtronica interface. Real tangerines sit directly on the surface and become conductive without modification. The visitor touches the central pile of tangerines and one of sixteen surrounding tangerines to activate a dream, forming a playful circuit where electricity, body, and fruit interpenetrate.

Tangerine Dreams, first prototype at the Cade Museum, photograph 3 of 6 — First prototype, Afrofuturism Week, Cade Museum, January 2026.

Materials: a computer running p5.js, a Playtronica device, alligator cables, fresh tangerines, LCD screens, and speakers.

Tangerine Dreams, first prototype at the Cade Museum, photograph 4 of 6 — First prototype, Afrofuturism Week, Cade Museum, January 2026.

April 2027

A version with AI premieres in April 2027 at the Cade Museum in Gainesville. It layers an open-source large language model, with a focus on open source and human-centered AI, developed through focus groups. Gainesville residents are invited to imagine the city’s future. Their stories and dreams fine-tune the model, which powers the installation and a companion website. Visitors touch real tangerines to complete electrical circuits that activate stories shaped by local voices.

Tangerine Dreams, first prototype at the Cade Museum, photograph 5 of 6 — First prototype, Afrofuturism Week, Cade Museum, January 2026.

Two public workshops bring together residents, students, families, and neighbors to create sixteen speculative dreams. The stories are used to fine-tune a model trained on community-authored writing, so the installation answers from Gainesville’s imagination. The installation is shown during Cade Community Days. A website will keep the invitation open, and selected dreams will be printed as postcards.

Tangerine Dreams, first prototype at the Cade Museum, photograph 6 of 6 — First prototype, Afrofuturism Week, Cade Museum, January 2026.

The project asks how a community imagines its future, how storytelling shapes civic identity, and how generative AI changes storytelling. I am developing it as Maker-in-Residence at the Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship, with the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention.