Unwoven Reminiscence, an artistic project that pays tribute to memory

Unwoven Reminiscence will be installed on 22 and 23 February at the eleventh edition of Jardins de Llum, an ephemeral art festival centred around light and water, part of the Festa de la Llum program in Manresa, one of the ten treasures of the Cultural Intangible Heritage of Catalonia and Andorra.

Unwoven Reminiscence is an installation of eight tapestries woven by the hands of individuals with varying degrees of cognitive impairment cared for at the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu. At the same time, these tapestries serve as canvases onto which images of the participants’ most significant life memories are projected, created with Artificial Intelligence (AI) based on hours of conversations with the project’s creators.

Created by theca.studio and the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu through the Torrents d’Art program, Unwoven Reminiscence is a tribute to memory that will be showcased in a unique space in the city, the Sant Ignasi Malalt Chapel.

The origins of the project: Conversation and active listening

One of the creators of this artistic project is David Prades, a social worker who has worked in nursing homes and hospitals. Through active listening and conversations arising daily from their work with users, Prades thought it was valuable to collect these experiences and give them significance before they were lost. Prades noted that this creative exercise stimulated users to recall and bring to the forefront those memories that were important to them.

With this idea, Prades contacted Thinh Truong, a multidisciplinary designer who had already experimented with AI-generated images in other projects, and together they founded theca.studio. Unwoven Reminiscence is the first collaboration between both artists.

“Our ultimate goal is the preservation of memories: The aim was to create new narratives through art and science, giving a voice to individuals or groups who are often underrepresented, both in artistic installations and in the world of AI. In this sense, Unwoven Reminiscence is also a legacy that seeks to preserve the stories of these individuals, so they endure even after they are gone," explains Prades.

An artistic creation carried out in different phases

To reach the final result, the artistic project went through different phases. The first phase consisted of data collection. Through the participation of eight individuals cared for in the Intermediate Care and Mental Health units of the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu (specifically from the Montserrat Clinic, Sant Joan Grande, and the Esplugues Intermediate Care Hospital), various sessions were held where, through conversation, childhood and adolescent experiences were relived, up to the present day. When a significant memory was identified for an individual, the aim was to recreate it exactly as they remembered it, using AI. The goal of the sessions was to create a life story for each participant, summarized in a one-and-a-half-minute video of images.

The next step involved a short survey of ten closed questions related to ten memories from the participant’s life, where the response could only be affirmative or negative (0 or 1). "For example, questions were asked about whether that memory evoked a feeling of joy or sadness, or whether they would want to relive that memory or, conversely, not revisit it," explains Prades. Responses were translated into patterns of 1 for affirmative or 0 for negative, creating a binary code matrix that became a unique pattern, from which each participant wove their own tapestry. Where there was a 1, they made a knot, while a 0 left an empty space.

Finally, the eight tapestries are hung from the ceiling, becoming the canvases onto which the videos of each participant’s memories are projected.  The final result is an installation that visually narrates the life story of each participant, blending memory, technology, and craftsmanship.

A project that could open a new line of research

The results of the Unwoven Reminiscence project caught the attention of Dr. Antoni Callén, head of the Neurology Department at Sant Joan de Déu Sant Boi Hospital, who saw significant potential in its application for individuals with neurological conditions, such as cognitive impairment. For Callén, the project aligned with another already established initiative at the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu (Cognivitra, with which it shares the goal of cognitive stimulation but employs a different methodology). As a result, Dr. Callén does not rule out that this artistic intervention could become a new line of research to assist individuals with cognitive impairment in the future.