RAM

RAM is a project that originates from the collaboration between myself and Artificial Intelligence. It’s a fictional narrative of my life, based on my personal visual archive, yet constructed and mediated by AI. The project explores the concept of memories and the importance of the construction of an archive within the digital realm. By submitting the hundreds of photographs contained in my smartphone to an algorithm, the latter analyses the images and describes what it perceives in them. I then photograph new settings based on the captions generated. A dialogue between myself and the machine is established to explore the notion of memory through the eyes of technology.

The images are staged, yet quite real as possible depictions of moments and scenarios of our current society. Presenting a certain glamour and glossiness, I delve into issues of mass production and overload of imagery within a commercialised industry, as well as stock images and the creation of datasets. What I show is an enhanced representation of our society, where I play with angles, framing, body and facial expressions, leaving small humorous and mundane details in the staged images.

RAM is an ongoing project in which its modular installation takes new shapes. The first exhibition RAM_1.0 at ECAL in Lausanne presented 5 different books and 5 slideshows on TV screens. Later on, RAM_2.0, exhibited from 14 December 2021 to 30 January 2022, part of L’Appartement – Espace Images Vevey, unveils the steps of the process with lenticular prints and wallpapers covering the room with archival images. And finally, the latest version, RAM_3.0, was presented at Espace Cery in Lausanne from May to June of 2022.

What RAM ultimately questions is the role of the machine in transforming and analysing our reality through the visual representations of my collection of memories. What are its limitations and implications when representing the memories of a human being? How truthful can it be? In an image-driven and social media society, creating memories, documenting our lives, and sharing it, is a big part of our current reality. To what point can we let our identity be built and narrated through AI?