A staggering amount of digital photos – and the memories they capture – are lost every day, with well over half (57%) of young Australians saying they’ve lost a precious digital photo, and didn’t have a physical copy.
instax has worked with leading researchers to create the world’s first printed memories in a campaign conceptualised by McCann + HERO Australia.
Lost memories were reconstructed from the mind of Nicole Toum, a Sydney support worker. After losing her father in 2018, Toum also lost dozens of digital photos, and she chose three of these core memories to be recovered through [Mind]ography.
Dr Paul Scotti of Princeton Neuroscience Institute and experiment lead described it as “literally cutting-edge, mind-reading research”.
He went on to explain: “We scanned Nicole’s brain with Functional MRI as she saw and imagined thousands of images, training our algorithm to recognise her brain patterns. Then when she imagined her memories, the AI could create a visual reconstruction of what she was imagining.”
These memories became the centrepiece of an exhibition at China Heights Gallery in Sydney. Reflecting on her experience, Toum said, “I came in not knowing what to expect. The MRIs were exhausting, but it’s been amazing. Extremely cathartic and joyous having these memories back. It feels like being home.”
The instax team was delighted with the outcome of this groundbreaking project. “Here’s the fun thing about memories, we all see them so differently, so we asked the question – what if you could print memories as you recall them in your mind? Not just a photo capturing a moment, but what you remember in your mind from that moment,” Fujifilm Australia general manager of photo imaging, Mary Georgievski said.
“We are excited to have printed the world’s first ‘memories’ through the [Mind]ography campaign, thanks to Nicole Toum, Dr Paul Scotti and the team at RINSW.”
Since the exhibition, instax has seen an 8 times increase in social engagement and a reach of 12 million so far.
McCann + HERO Australia senior creatives, Mitchell Sutton and Josh Campbell said: “[Mind]ography is one of those ‘what if’ ideas we’d normally put aside pretty quickly. But AI is unlocking new possibilities so fast, you almost can’t just say ‘that’s impossible’… you’ve got to check first.
“It’s fantastic to be able to visualise data in such a unique way, plus it’s easy to see how this kind of tech will change lives. Being able to help Nicole recover her lost memories was a privilege, and we can’t wait to see where Dr Scotti’s research ends up.”