In Barcelona starting a unique unique unique The project “The Synthetic Memories” (“synthetic memories”), thanks to which the lost or never captured moments of the past come to life in the photographs. Developed by the local design studio Domestic Data Streamers, the project uses generative images models, such as Openai Dall-E to recreate visual memories of people.
The initiative began in 2022 and has already received support from the UN and Google. She is aimed at helping the families of immigrants and refugees around the world in the reconstruction of images of important, but unsocumented events of their life or restoring lost photographs.
For example, Maria, one of the first project testers, grew up in Barcelona of the 40s. She recalls how she saw her father, concluded for counteracting the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, through a small window of the prison cell. Now she has the opportunity to see this scene in physical photography, albeit generated by a neural network. Such memories come to life in blurry and distorted images, causing strong emotions among participants.
In addition to personal significance, the project explores the potential for the use of images generated by neural networks in the treatment of dementia. Preliminary tests showed that printed copies of images are especially significant for the elderly, since they cause a stronger emotional reaction, which can contribute to stimulation of cognitive abilities.
It is interesting that the older versions of generative models were more effective than new due to the blur and uncleanness of images, which better correspond to the obscure nature of human memories. The weaknesses of obsolete technology suddenly became a feature that helps people better catch forgotten fragments from the past.
The project has already been fixed by many successful stories, including the reconstruction of scenes from the life of immigrant families in San Paulo and working with the nursing home in Barcelona. Ahead of the Domestic team is the task of conducting a larger clinical study in cooperation with Toronto University.
The project not only restores lost memories, but also opens up new horizons in understanding the effects of generated images on the human psyche and memory, raising questions about the influence of artificial intelligence on our perception of reality.