latent_ME (digital_d3mentia)

This is the first part of the “latent me” duology exploring how identities dissolve and recombine in digital space. This first video “latent me – digital dementia” is a very personal project. My father had dementia and his condition was very quickly worsening. There seem to be parallels in our coping mechanisms between loosing yourself to biological decline and losing control over personal data because of network complexities. This video was generated by a feedback loop of compressing the visual data of my portrait and reconstructing it by pattern prediction. Instead of distilling rich texture information into meaningful lines, as a drawing does this process focuses on statistically significant patterns. Over time, this emphasis alters the information within the image crucial for identity. What remains is a latent version of it, statistically true but beyond visual identity preservation.