Artist Uses AI to Render Poignant Photo Album Spanning Family's Past and Imagined Futures
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Maria Mavropoulou used AI to generate over 400 images depicting 7 decades of her family history to fill in missing visuals from her past. The resulting photo album blends truth and fiction.
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The AI seemed eerily accurate about certain details, though the rendered human faces were often distorted and uncanny. Mavropoulou sees this as an important part of her commentary.
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Going beyond recreating the past, Mavropoulou also visualized moments that never happened, playing with the notion of "what if" to reconcile her actual story.
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On a personal level, the project provided healing by rewriting her past to shape her future. Conceptually, it prompts philosophical questions around truth vs fiction in AI images.
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Ultimately, Mavropoulou uses technology as a mirror to better understand how AI sees and shapes humanity, turning a spotlight on the instant prompt-result paradigm.