Bronze / 2024 / Special / AI Generated Images

Reconstructed Reveries: AI and the Fabric of Memory

Memory, with its inherent fuzziness, fluidity and reinterpretation, resembles the workings of Text-To-Image AI generators—both capable of producing countless variations and interpretations of a single event.

Inspired by Freud's concept of infantile amnesia, which underscores our inability to recall the earliest moments of our lives, this series delves into the mysterious void of pre-verbal childhood. By extracting passages from my mother's diary chronicling my life before my second birthday, I employ generative AI to bridge the gaps in my recollection.

Xinya Xu, born in Shanghai, China, currently pays the bill as a data engineer in Microsoft. She doesn’t plan to give up her day job and work as a professional photographer, because she believes the feelings and emotions she experienced as an employee will inspire her work. She likes to describe her work as “life photography” for the permanent theme haunting around, about life experience, about the common feelings across context, space and time, language, culture, or history.