False Positive

The work is based on an image from the film directed by Abraham Zapruder, a historical document capturing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. The artistic project consists of a transformation of this source image by artificial intelligence, which generates a new version by adding additional visual elements. Zapruder’s film is a special document in the history of photography and amateur cinema. These 8mm images, captured on November 22, 1963, have become a major source of analysis, interpretation and theory concerning the assassination of President Kennedy. The original sequence, made up of 486 photograms, has been the subject of numerous technical studies and has fueled a variety of interpretations of the events. This work focuses specifically on the phenomenon of pareidolia, which is defined as the psychological tendency to identify familiar forms in random patterns. In the context of Zapruder’s film, this phenomenon manifested itself in a significant way: many observers perceived elements in these images that matched their personal theories or convictions regarding the circumstances of the assassination. Here, the artist uses artificial intelligence as a tool to extend and question this process of visual interpretation. The AI system, programmed to analyze and augment the source image, produces its own interpretation by adding details that did not exist in the original image. This process can be seen as a form of artificial pareidolia, where the machine, rather than the human, becomes the agent that “perceives” and materializes additional elements. This approach raises a number of questions about the nature of visual interpretation and the relationship between human perception and automated image processing. The work parallels two types of meaning construction: on the one hand, the multiple human interpretations that have emerged around Zapruder’s film, and on the other, the process of image generation by artificial intelligence. The choice of Zapruder’s film as source material is not insignificant, as this document has generated a considerable number of analyses and theories, becoming a significant example of how the same visual document can give rise to divergent interpretations. The intervention of artificial intelligence in this context proposes a new reading of these historical images, adding another layer to their interpretative history. This work fits into the broader context of contemporary artistic practices using artificial intelligence as a medium. It participates in current reflections on the role of AI technologies in the production and interpretation of images, as well as on questions of historical truth and narrative construction from visual documents. The project also questions the notion of the historical document and its transformation by contemporary technologies. By using AI to modify a historically significant image, the work questions the boundaries between document and interpretation, between historical fact and narrative construction.