Join the researchers of the Synthetic Pasts project and their creative partner, artist Mark Stuart-Smith, for a session that explores current practices of digital necromancy and algorithmic afterlives.

The event aims to spark conversation by introducing participants to Synthetic Pasts and to the art installation Black Box. The session will start with a series of short audio-visual presentations, followed by Q&A with the researchers and artist, giving participants the opportunity to reflect and give feedback on the ethics of these practices.

Drinks and light refreshments will be provided.

What’s it about?

Recent advances in deep learning technologies enable digital data to be changed or manipulated to create new kinds of ‘afterlives’ – such as ‘holographic’ resurrections of celebrities, deepfake historical figures, and animated archival material. Synthetic Pasts explores the use and misuse of these automated processes and the ethical challenges they present, asking what futures for personal and collective memory our algorithmic present anticipates and paves the way for.

Black Box by Mark Stuart-Smith is an artistic response to Synthetic Pasts that reflects on algorithmic afterlives, deepfake technology and digital trickery. Black Box is part of the exhibition FAKE OR REAL? – a free-to-visit, outdoor display at The Curiosity Cabinet at 171 Strand. Delivered by King's College London & The Courtauld, the exhibition explores the effects of authenticity on how we interact with images.

Who owns the rights to someone’s likeness, or their memory? Can a deceased person be considered to have consented to such an afterlife? What considerations should inform work with digital human remains? Participants will leave with a better understanding of these issues, having navigated implications for creative work as well as for personal and collective memory.

This event forms part of King’s College London free events programme for the Festival of Social Science made possible thanks to funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).