Ask Willi Graf!

Ask Willi Graf!“ is a memorial installation created to honor the life and legacy of Willi Graf, a member of the anti-Nazi resistance during World War II. Commissioned by the German Newspaper Museum in Wadgassen, Germany, in 2024, this installation consists of three components: a carved wooden relief, animated projections, and a conversational audio AI. Each component is intended to reflect different aspects of Graf’s life and beliefs, allowing visitors to explore his story.

Willi Graf lived between the two world wars. He believed strongly in individual freedom and the responsibility of people to protect societal freedoms. In his youth, he found inspiration in nature, often going on excursions with youth groups. As a medical student, he witnessed the brutal realities of war on the Eastern Front, which solidified his opposition to the Nazi regime. Eventually, he joined the „White Rose“ resistance group alongside Hans and Sophie Scholl and Alexander Schmorell. After months of Gestapo torture, Graf was executed by guillotine in 1943.

The installation aims, first of all, to be informative about Graf’s journey and philosophy. The carved wooden relief represents his figure as a statue, while the projected animations add movement and context to his story. The conversational AI is trained on Hans Peter Goergen’s biographical book „Willi Graf: A Way into Resistance“ (2009)*, providing visitors with insights into Graf’s life, his role in the resistance, and the historical context of his actions. The AI can also address more abstract questions about Graf’s ideas on topics such as freedom, his Catholic beliefs and self-sacrifice.

One notable interaction involved a visitor who shared a poem critiquing the misuse of the White Rose symbol by neo-fascists. The AI responded by interpreting the poem and offering a critique of such distortions, reflecting Graf’s values.

„Ask Willi Graf!“ aims to serve as a means of a memorial for reflection, bridging Graf’s time and the present. It encourages visitors to consider the ongoing struggles for freedom and the courage required to defend such ideals.

_{* Goergen, P. (2009). Willi Graf – Ein Weg in den Widerstand (1st ed.). Röhrig Universitätsverlag.}

The design and artistic decisions of the memorial „Ask Willi Graf!“

The development of conversational AI technologies like ChatGPT and Mistral has introduced a novel approach to engaging with the memory of deceased individuals. These AI systems simulate conversations with historical figures, providing a realistic interaction that can be both fascinating and uncanny. Such a phenomenon needs a critical evaluation of its implications, particularly in two major areas.

1. Avoiding the Uncanny
Throughout history, humans have created various forms of memorials to remember and honor the dead, such as pyramids and statues in antiquity, household altars for ancestors in Asia, or framed family photographs in modern times. These memorials create a canvas for the living to express thoughts and emotions towards the deceased without expecting any response.

AI-based memorials or „deadbots“ represent a modern evolution of these traditions, but with a key difference: they simulate a two-way dialogue. This ability to create the illusion that the deceased can respond adds a new dimension to memorials. This simulated dialogue enables a more sophisticated way to remember the deceased and learn about their life story.

However, the personification of a deceased person giving convincing answers to visitors‘ questions with a realistic voice also creates an uncanny sense of unease. There are diverse practices in cultures around the world that not only send messages to the dead but also expect answers or ask for help from them. Examples include Roman and Greek necromancy practices, the Spiritualism movement in 19th-century Europe.

Studying these belief systems might contribute to a better understanding of novel AI-based memorials. Such studies could lead to improved AI memorial designs, by consciously integrating certain elements and excluding others to create a more informative and reflective interaction, avoiding misleading users into the illusion of genuine communication with the deceased.

The animation element of the installation „Ask Willi Graf!“ aims to avoid this illusion by using a simple white line figure, which is a rotoscoping animation—essentially sketches of real human movements from a video. The basic line drawing supports the idea that the visualized person is only an abstraction of Willi Graf, whereas the realistic movement conveys a liveliness that contrasts with the fact that the person is deceased, thereby breaking the illusion of communicating with a dead person.

2. The Question of Figurativeness

AI personas are fundamentally shaped by the data used to train them and the rules restricting and guiding chatbot behavior. This creative process is analogous to sculpting, where an artist carves away material or adds features to define a final form. Similarly, developers shape AI personas by selecting specific data sources, applying constraints, and determining appropriate responses.

However, it is important to note that AI language models lack a physical embodiment and visual representation. This absence of a tangible form significantly influences the nature of human-AI interaction.

The physical element of the installation „Ask Willi Graf!“ is a simple wooden sunken relief. In sunken reliefs, figures are carved as empty spaces into the surface, rather than cutting the background around the figures as in flat sculptures. Reliefs and friezes were widely used in Greek and Roman tombs, often as bas or high reliefs rather than sunken reliefs. Sunken reliefs were in fact used in ancient Egypt, such as in the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III, but there figures were carved to appear as positive intaglios rather than hollow forms.

In the installation „Ask Willi Graf!“, the figure of Willi Graf is carved as a negative space. This emptiness is not only an allusion to a young person’s missing place in society, whose life was violently taken, but also serves as an intentional design choice for AI-based memorials. The negative space hints at the absence of a living body. The animations projected on the wooden carving do not exactly follow the outlines; instead, they are deliberately projected around the relief. The light from the projector does not fill the emptiness, which would create a mystical look. Rather, the light and shadows in and around the carved space provide a playful, earthly visual. This is further emphasized by the playful, perspective-breaking movements of the animated figure.