signs of the times

“The Synthetic Candidate” by Baitul Javid

A smiling politician hangs from strings, half flesh, half machine. His glowing cyborg eye and wooden doll hands reveal what he really is: a puppet built for control, not conscience. The figure represents leaders who push a far-right technocratic future of surveillance and order, stripped of emotion, meaning, humanity, and history.

Inspired by science-fiction and titled after ‘The Manchurian Candidate’, this piece reimagines the puppet-cyborg politician as a reflection of our time; where power is automated, empathy is obsolete, and the illusion of progress hides a hollow obedience built on ignoring and denying the truth.