Computational Mama aka Ambika Joshi shared her observations about the absence of mother-like figures in recent AI generated imagery. Employing the figure of the mother as a strategy to generate prompts for diffusion models and machine learning algorithms, the artist reproduces as many possible ideas around mothering, motherhood and birthing as the AI model can imagine. Through her process, Computational Mama reconfigures the technological discourse around imaging systems around social relations of care and chosen families.

Computational Mama’s work explores live coding and teaching as a form of camaraderie, friendship and self-care. On her Twitch stream, she teaches the basics of creative computation and new approaches to computational thinking. Her streaming series Coding with Friends is rooted in creating inclusive spaces for womxn makers to explore creative computation. She was awarded the Processing Foundation Fellowship in 2021 to produce Season 2 of Coding with Friends. She was a 2021 Processing Fellow, a speaker at Iterations 2021, a 2020 BeFantastic Fellow and has been featured in Casey Reas’ recent list of generative artists doing interesting work. Her work has been featured in India Art Fair (2022) and Vorspiel / transmediale & CTM (2021). She is a co-instigator of dra.ft which explores emergent ideas of text and its future. The moniker Computational Mama, was created in late 2017 when a bed-ridden heavily pregnant mama-to-be decided to learn creative coding. She currently lives in Udaipur, India in a mutli-generational household of all women and her 5 year old son. She is also known as Ambika, a museum professional with over 10 years of experience and is the co-founder of Ajaibghar Cultural Services.