My father died when he was forty-four and I was seventeen. When I turned forty-four I wanted to talk to him again. I contacted Resemble AI, a company that creates clones of voices using machine learning, and we worked together to create an AI model of my father’s voice. This project is a series of six conversations created through my interactions with the audio deepfake of my father. His responses are based on different sources of information–producing a kaleidoscope of different dads. Through our conversations I struggle with the question–how do you reconstruct someone who is no longer here?
I created the first twenty-six minute conversation this past October at a residency at CultureHub. To create the conversation I transcribed interviews with my mother and sisters and wrote a script that wove together their memories of my father. After the script was written I worked with CultureHub to record my part of the conversation. My father’s part was recorded by CultureHub Artistic Director Billy Clark and then translated into my father’s voice by Resemble AI. The finished audio piece has been presented in collective listening sessions and in a listening booth installed in exhibitions.
Conversations with My Deepfake Dad is made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature through the Media Arts Assistance Fund a regrant partnership of NYSCA and Wave Farm.
