#MERZmory diffused

AI models, trained on my memories.

Memories are doors to our past. Deceptive doors, because every time you try to remember things, your mind makes them up. In the end, it’s not your past — it’s your present.

With photography it’s different. Not that photography shows us the truth — it never does. The photograph is just a very personal view of a single moment somewhere in the universe, a fixed visual memory. But you can share that memory with others. They will surely see and recognize something quite different from what you did. Others will have their own associations, experiences, and knowledge. But the moment will be shared in a sudden intersection of visual experiences.

My father was a writer, reporter, and photographer. When he died, he bequeathed to me his vast photo archive — with his own memories that he shared with the public in publications, magazines, and books over an entire era.

By digitizing his photos, I understood that he was sharing his memories with me. It was a dialogue with him, lively, open, even if post-mortem.
So I wondered what would happen if I used my own photos — and texts — as training data for AI. Will it create new memories? Will it make up stories, like our brains do every time we remember something?