Moving Image Award Winner 2023

Ana Min Wein (Where Am I From?) - Nouf Aljowaysir (United States)

Artwork description

Ana Min Wein (Where Am I From?) is a short film and visual diary that constructs my genealogical journey using two different voices, my own and an AI ‘narrator'. It combines generational storytelling and AI to meditate on identity, migration, and memory.

After immigrating to the US from Saudi Arabia at a young age, my identity and belonging have continually shifted with time. I begin Ana Min Wein by trying to answer "Where am I from?" by recollecting my childhood and tracing my family's memories and migration through Saudi Arabia and Iraq, hoping to find an answer. As the AI character attempts to support my journey, it reveals stereotypes and biases derived from its training and algorithmic composition.

By juxtaposing oral storytelling against AI, Ana Min Wein exposes the eradication of my ancestors' collective memory. Compared to our social practices of building cultural meaning through ancestral stories, AI technologies are trained to generalize for consumerist speed and gain. I highlight traditions of passing down stories through generations to expose the superficiality of AI, the reduction of cultural identity, and the prominence of the Western gaze in our technologies today.

Partners and collaborators

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council grant number ES/T007354/1.

Commissioned by Somerset House in partnership with The Alan Turing Institute and UAL Creative Computing Institute. Developed in residence at Somerset House Studios.

Creator: Nouf Aljowaysir
Cinematographer, Creative Consultant & Advisor:
Sarra'a Alshehhi
Producer, Editor, Cinematography & Sound Design:
Nicolás Escarpentier
Animator: Noura Adel