SLS Arkivgalaxen
Historical archive reimagined
For the 140th anniversary of the Swedish Literature Society, we were invited to visually explore the theme of Future and Change.
SLS’s most prized possession, its archive, documents centuries of the Finnish-Swedish cultural footprint in Finland and beyond. We decided to reimagine the SLS photo and literary archives in order to see them from a new perspective. Using GenAI technologies, we uncovered new connections and narrative threads, revealing how the documented past shapes our future.
40 000 artifacts all at once
The SLS archive is structured as a relational database in a regular table format. Our starting point was to create a system which would allow us to see, browse, and organize all of the archived artifacts all at once in real-time. To achieve this, we mapped them into a 3D vector space, where their XYZ positions are determined by metadata and proximity, as defined by AI. Instead of a traditional 2D list, various attributes influence their placement in three dimensions, allowing us to visualize the entire archive as an organized whole.
Looking for hidden connections using GenAI
We explored the SLS archive by using an AI language model. We analyzed all of the the archived artifacts by describing not only what they show or say, but also the actions they depict, feelings they might evoke, and their overall atmosphere. From the descriptions we algorithmically extracted the most interesting and creative keywords or phrases that captured the essence of each artifact.
These item-specific keywords guided searches through the organized descriptions, revealing relationships between artifacts. Their connections determined positioning within a 3D vector space, allowing Arkivgalaxen to uncover hidden links and narrative threads that only became apparent when artifacts were placed side by side.
Fully interactive and explorable in real-time
40 000 artifacts all interacting with one another; all possible in the browser, in real-time. The current implementation of the Arkivgalaxen is a tool which allows browsing and customization of the massive visualization. It comes with a rendering engine which allows camera animations, key framing of variables, and the capture of videos in 8K.
SLS 140 gala
Arkivgalaxen premiered as an immersive projection mapping experience in Finlandiatalo in Helsinki. The projections totaled nearly 500sqm and were accompanied by original spatial sound design featuring music and interviews from the SLS archive.
Impact and future
Arkivgalaxen was met with great enthusiasm from the audience and clients alike. It is currently being developed as a real-time, browser-based tool with the goal of transforming the way archival artifacts and historical trends are explored. By further developing the frontend and AI mechanisms, the project aims to create a powerful research platform that offers a global perspective, uncovering connections and narrative threads beyond traditional search and metadata. Additionally, it is envisioned as an immersive interface for archives, expanding access beyond its current standard database format.
