The MCLA Robotic Arts Program
In the distant future, long after humans have forsaken Earth in favor of more hospitable planets in other star systems, left behind are strange congeries of creatures, part organic, part machine. Some are the product of their current world, others embodiments founded in a past of human experiment and ancient mythology. They dwell in the dimmed environment of a dying star, wandering in lands of oppressive heat and an occasional tropical oasis from whence to take refuge. One such place of sanctuary is the Night Garden of the Hesperides.
Located at the western end of the world, the garden is watched over by the giant drakon Ladon – part dragon, part machine – who spends its endless days caring for the Chrysion that inhabit the garden. These small creatures whose form while in the garden leave them vulnerable to predators, have only Ladon to protect them. Adding to Ladon´s burden are the Hesperides (Aegle, Arethusa, Erytheia and Hesperia). As are many of the creations of Earth´s now abandoned technical society, these four sisters were resurrected from the folklore of ancient mythology as autonomous machines with characteristics reflecting their fabled past. Thus, while they too were supposed to guard the Chrysion, rather they prankishly disturb them as they rest and so make them accessible to the marauding Diaclides, who by dark of night seek to carry them away.