theconversation.com: At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum announced the launch of a new digital replica of the concentration camp for filmmakers. Titled Picture from Auschwitz, the virtual film location is designed to facilitate a range of productions set on the grounds, where preservation regulations currently restrict filming to documentaries.
4 comments:
I didn’t know Auschwitz -Birkenau was being digitized and I can see the positives and negatives associated with that. I think having a digital replica for recording purposes is an interesting concept. However, I agree with the article’s viewpoint that this is unethical in many aspects. The fact AI is being used to create simulation games is very alarming and also leans into the fears that the replica and its further uses won’t be accurate. I remember in high school we had to do a presentation about the Holocaust and this group of two guys “recreated” the Auschwitz-Birkenau really poorly on Minecraft and it made everyone uncomfortable. All this to say, I think historians should prioritize preserving all the real Holocaust sites, history and the people’s stories. I also wonder what else in the coming decade will be virtualized in the name of preservation and how AI will become increasingly utilized.
Being able to record and digitize the horror that was concentration camps as a reminder especially as younger generations see it as more of a myth or made up story is incredibly important as to what the world could and has done. Being able to virtualize it saves it from the world from losing this important marker of history.
The misuse of the sites are already at danger with guests taking selfies and posting themselves on social media and disrespecting the history and horror of the events that take place there. The protection of these sites and digital representations of them should be held by responsible organizations that can withhold the use of these sites or replicas for irresponsible use
Using generative AI to make Holocaust survivors is a dangerous slope. Especially with how unrealistic AI is today, it would fail to keep true to the horror that Auschwitz holds and would turn the experience more into a game than reality.
I agree with the article that digitising Auschwitz-Birkenau raises both important opportunities and troubling questions. The digital replica has the potential to preserve Holocaust memory for future generations who have no direct experience of the events, especially now that survivors who can tell the story firsthand are passing away. It may also be a more engaging way for younger generations to learn, since they might respond more to interactive technology than to maybe something like reading books. However, the project also exposes some serious tensions. Its selective focus on Auschwitz I and II, while excluding Auschwitz III and the sub-camps, leaves out many crucial aspects of this history. As the article points out, there is also the risk that digital culture could overshadow survivor testimonies and existing artifacts. Ultimately, though, I think the project’s value will depend on how it is used, and on the types of stories and styles filmmakers choose.
This feels like a crazy conversation to be having. While I do understand the push to make history of the holocaust more accessible to a new generation of audiences, and use modern digital technology to preserve a vital piece of history, I’m weary. As this article states, the moment that a filmmaker starts working in a setting there’s bias from something as simple as the angle they hold the camera. To even suggest making generative AI a part of this conversation is completely inappropriate and absurd. Let’s first just consider that in any contest, using generative technology to create a more biased narrative around a historical event is a terrible idea. History as a whole is storytelling, bias, and to take humanity from that by letting AI technology take on digesting stories and spitting them back out false creates nothing but a mess.
Additionally, I am a huge fan of live performance over film. (Of course, I’m a theatrical technician, I’m biased.) I’ve found within my own personal experiences that to be immersed in a world, to literally see with your own eye something incredible has so much more of an emotional impact than something digitised. The moment the holocaust is remembered digitally over physically, the collective understanding of that history is not only inherently biased by the storytellers, but a little bit harder to empathise with. To watch a video of a place and watch events mimicking a historical event is very easy to separate yourself from. There’s a huge difference from visiting a location in our real world, and seeing the physical proof that something existed. That the stories were true, and there is no realer feeling then to live it. To see Aushuitz, how it’s degraded over time, and to form an emotional reaction for yourself rather than what any kind of digital media creator or generative AI could tell you to feel.
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