Publications
Kidd, J., & Nieto McAvoy, E. (2026). Bloomsbury [part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Digital Cultures series].
Kidd, J., & Nieto McAvoy, E. (2025) in Memory, Mind and Media (4), doi:10.1017/mem.2025.10013
Nieto McAvoy, E. & Kidd, J. (2024) in Memory, Mind and Media (3), doi:10.1017/mem.2024.10
Kidd, J., & Nieto McAvoy, E. (2023) in Convergence, 29(3), 620-640. https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565221149839
Other
1 / Digital story: Project overview
Eva Nieto McAvoy introduces the research context and key project concerns in a 5 minute digital story.
2 / R.I.P [Rest In Protocol] 'deathbots' video
Jenny Kidd introduces our 'deathbots' work package in a 5 minute video overview.
3 / Website
This website is a reflection of our critical-creative approach to synthetic pasts. It is inspired by the work of scholars in adjacent and overlapping fields:
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Jenna Ng whose video essay and work on The New Virtuality has been so instructive to our approach.
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Lev Manovich’s artistic and foundational work in new media studies.
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Joanna Zylinska’s ‘hybrid’ enquiry, combining philosophy and artistic practice.
The project team have been involved in a range of different creative and public engagement across the project. This includes podcasts, events and workshops.
At the end of 2024 we hosted a series of events and workshops for people in the museums/heritage sector to engage with the project and its themes. Following those interactions we produced a Workbook for cultural professionals to learn more about and reflect upon ‘AI Afterlives.’
Image outputs
One of the concerns of Synthetic Pasts is how AI systems interact with images; in their creation, manipulation and circulation. In the project we have created many hundreds of images as researcher-users of platforms and devices, and as a way of visualising our findings and concerns in relation to synthetic pasts. Across this website you will see some of these creations, prompted using AI image generators like Duet AI, Magic Media, Dall-E4 and Stable Diffusion. Creating these images prompts us in return; to (re-)consider what kinds of representations or ‘predictions’ (Manovich 2023) AI systems conjure, and where their blind spots are.
Image credits: [1] Google Duet AI, 30 Nov 2023, prompt by JK. [2] Wix, 9 Jan 2024, prompt by JK. [3] Wix, 9 Jan 2024, prompt by JK. [4] Google Duet AI, 30 Nov 2023, prompt by JK. [5] DALL-E 3, 9 Jan 2024, prompt by JK. [6] Wix, 9 Jan 2024 prompt by JK. [7] Stable Diffusion, 30 Nov 2023, prompt by JK. [8] DALL-E , 9 Jan 2024, prompt by JK. [9] Google Duet AI, 30 Nov 2023, prompt by JK. [10] Google Duet AI, 30 Nov 2023, prompt by JK. [11] Google Duet AI, 30 Nov 2023, prompt by JK.
