My Deepfake Dad

2021- present

Website: www.mydeepfakedad.com

My father died when he was forty-four and I was seventeen. He was a screenwriter who used a tape recorder to take notes about his work and his life. A year ago I turned forty-four and wanted to talk to him again. I reached out to Resemble AI, a company that uses machine learning to create clones of voices, to discuss the possibility of creating a deepfake of my father’s voice. Over the next year, I found six hours of his recordings and worked with Resemble AI and my mother to think through the ethical and technological challenges of recreating my father’s voice. Last October, the model of his voice was completed, and I was able to type words into the interface and hear him speak.

My Deepfake Dad will be a collection of artifacts produced through my interactions with an audio deepfake of my father. The centerpiece of the project will be recorded conversations between me and his voice. Since my father is gone, it is impossible to know what he would say in these conversations. Part of this project will be visiting Gestalt therapists, spiritualists, and others who can help me imagine what these conversations would have been. From this research, I will create audio recordings and photographs that constitute an online presence for my father. I will release these artifacts serially through an audio platform and Instagram feed, allowing people to hear and see him in the only medium in which he now exists.