39 Words
Words, images and video by Andrea Salerno J.
39 Words is a spontaneous meditation on what artificial intelligence means in the present of photography. The recurring question about the function of images in the creation of an intimate memory and in the collective memory.
This project was awarded with a screening and exhibition at the Lumínic Festival in Sant Cugat del Vallés, Barcelona, Spain, in June, 2023.
An accident with the Polaroid camera propelled the challenge of regenerating, replicating, or creating an image similar to the lost instant photo. The AI could not return those faces to an image that will only be part of the intangibility of the memory of all of us who were there, and that, over time, that memory will be transformed, blurred, distorted, and perhaps it will also be deleted.
Not even the thirty-nine precise and descriptive words, nor the names of the people chosen as "prompt" managed to imprint the presence of those who dined, chatted, and laughed together that night.
So a new question arises: do these new forms of image generation create photos that belong to fantasy or memory? What will our memory be made up of for the future? Perhaps from true memories or perhaps fantasies generated through AI? And on the other hand, hasn't photography also been a way to imprint fantasy and generate memories of something that never happened?
Dall-e image: Prompt for DALL·E - Polaroid photo, dark wooden floor, small platform with bookcase full of books in the background. In the front, we see Lucas, Abhirami, Saba, Daniel, Mahnaz, and Andrea all lined up.
