The photographer using AI to reconstruct stories lost to censorship

Video screens glow softly from the floor, looping footage of salt lakes, steppe villages, and decaying nuclear test sites. Suspended above them is a large handwoven textile map, crafted by artisans in Kazakhstan. The tapestry maps 12 significant sites across Kazakhstan and the surrounding region, each corresponding to one of the flickering videos below. This is Posthuman Matter: The Map of Nomadizing Reimaginings #3, the latest large-scale installation by photographer and multimedia artist Almagul Menlibayeva.

Recently unveiled at the VRHAM! Digital & Immersive Art Biennale in Hamburg, Germany, the work is part of Menlibayeva's ongoing series of "cyber textiles," which offer a striking blend of craft and code. It imagines an alternative cartography of Central Asia, with each video in the installation infusing the locations with erased histories and traditions, putting forth an alternative future for them. While the tapestries are created by hand, the videos are a mixture of real and replicated, built from documentary footage captured by Menlibayeva and then augmented with AI to infuse feminist rituals, nomadic storytelling traditions, and whispers of endangered languages.

Read the full story at The Verge.