Citizens’ Office of Synthetic Memories

An experiment with AI about memory by Domestic Data Streamers.

The Citizens’ Office of Synthetic Memories is a space dedicated to visually reconstructing and recovering memories that were never recorded, and are now at risk of being forgotten. The aim is to create an archive of visual memories that will help future generations understand and preserve the story of their past.  At the same time, the project explores the relationship between GEN-AI and memory, as well as the risks and new behaviours that can emerge from these technologies.

Synthetic Memories is a project by Domestic Data Streamers that leverages generative artificial intelligence to recreate memories and preserve the unique identity of those to whom they belong. It also acts as an intergenerational bridge, inviting older citizens to share their memories with a younger generation who are involved in the process of reconstructing them.

Two years after its inception, Synthetic Memories has visited four countries to recover personal stories that were threatened with disappearing due to ageing or sudden displacement of communities due to war, political persecution, or natural disasters. 

A creative hub open to all
This first public office of Synthetic Memories opens at the Disseny Hub Barcelona (DHub) in collaboration with the Barcelona City Council and the Proactive City BIT Habitat.

Anyone can request an appointment to visually reconstruct their memories at the office with a specialised team trained in this new technology. Each session lasts between 45 minutes and 1 hour, during which a written and visual testimony of each personal story is generated.

The visual recreation process has two phases. In the first, an interview is conducted with the person who wants to recover their memories, delving into specific experiences visually. The second phase uses prompt engineering to transform the oral testimony into images using GEN-AI, which are then presented to the person and adapted based on their feedback.

Once the interview is finished, the participant is asked if they would like to give permission for their story to be included in an exhibition within the same space. All the memories of those who agree to participate will form part of a collective exhibition that will be developed over the three months that the office is open. 

Two years of research
The project started in 2022, as pilot experiments in nursing homes practising reminiscence therapy for dementia patients, before going on to recover memories of migrant and refugee communities who had lost photographs of their past during their migration process. In November of last year, the initiative travelled to the Bom Retiro neighbourhood in São Paulo to visually reconstruct the memories of migrants from Brazil, Bolivia, and Korea. The project has been featured in international media outlets such as The Atlantic, MIT, and Quartz, and has already received research support from the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia, Google Arts, BIT HABITAT, and the Disseny Hub Barcelona (DHub).

This office is part of an ongoing initiative by the creative studio Domestic Data Streamers. This studio is composed of designers, researchers, artists, programmers, data scientists, and journalists who explore new data languages through communication, design, interaction, robotics, AI, websites, performances, or spatial design. Additionally, for this project, the studio has received the support of collaborators such as Ojalá Projects or Gennís Senén.

In a time when artificial intelligence moves between increasingly polarised visions, promising utopian futures, or warning of dystopian realities, the project of the Citizens’ Office of Synthetic Memories adopts an alternative vision. Instead of seeking to replace or control an existing process, it aims to expand our society’s capacity to connect, empathise, and build bridges between different generations and experiences.