This project explores the distortions of memory through photographs of domestic celebrations in the USSR. The project is based on a photographic archive dating 1960s-2000s.
Delicious & Healthy Memories
People in the Soviet Union could only dream of the dishes described in ‘The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food’. Using photogrammetry, I created 3D reconstructions of some of these iconic dishes.
"Emotions and thoughts can influence this process; as a result, memories may have little in common with reality".
Memory is also affected by the reconstructive nature of human memory. Scientists have identified the phenomenon of memory reconsolidation, in which the brain rewrites memories of an event or a person each time they are recalled. Emotions and thoughts can influence this process; as a result, memories may have little in common with reality.
Starting around 2020, distortions come not only from our unreliable memory, but also from AI. All archival photographs in the book are authentic, but some of them were extended (outpainted) using AI, blurring the boundary between document and fiction. Diptychs serve as a visual device that shows how something that initially appears whole reveals itself to be fragmented or partly fictional.
Our memory can no longer be considered reliable, as it is significantly distorted by memory reconsolidation, contaminated by propaganda, and filled with false artifacts created by AI.