DATA

DATA s. f. [from lat. medieval data «data», past participle to dare, beginning of the formula in which it was said where and when the letter had been delivered to the bearer; in the meaning 3 and ff., der. to give].

DATA is a project that intends to explore the field of Artificial Intelligence and its ability to generate and archive a new historical memory of humanity starting from real events. After choosing three image generation software accessible to all (without registration or subscriptions) starting from a text, I entered the place, date and, where possible, the time of the historical event in the command prompts.

The images shown in the video installation are the result of this dialogue.

The dates that for every human being refer to a precise image, which is part of a collective memory, cededs to AI become something else. The history of crucial events for humankind is revise from AI through the creation of postcards from the present that tell a past that AI has come to learn through the data provided by millions of users on the net and, from which it draws to return the answer to our questions. The narrative that emerges, between fiction and reality, is transformed into an anonymous postcard received from a non-place populated by characters who never existed, the undisputed protagonists of a story never written in a wonderful and disturbing fake history, always different but always same to himself in perpetuating the magic the deception. Instantaneous and unrepeatable images that are regenerated with each command, always taking inspiration from the same real sources which, if not saved, are able to live only for a few moments as often happens to our memories.
The short circuit generated by this dialogue, although sometimes corresponding to reality, leads to the recognition by the AI of some events and to the removal and consequent regeneration of others, decreeing an unstable hierarchy due to the notoriety that the event itself enjoys in net.