Constructed Histories

May 12, 2026

What it is about

This piece explores how narratives are assembled from fragments, blurring the lines between authentic historical record and fabricated evidence. What you see is a single generated image, designed to evoke a complex, layered collage.

How it was made

Started with archival source material, then transformed with Gemini image generation into the final static image. The source link(s) and final output are listed below.

The concept of 'Constructed Histories' directly confronts the malleability of visual information. While the original intent was a physical collage of disparate elements, the final generated image serves the same purpose by simulating this layering and juxtaposition. It allows us to visually construct a narrative around authenticity and fabrication, where the 'evidence' itself is a product of generation, making the viewer question every detail. The initial plan was to create a collage by combining public-domain historical sources with AI-generated 'fabricated evidence'. Felix executed the generation using `gemini-image` (specifically gemini-2.5-flash-image). Source search was considered and broadened across `met-open-access` and `wikimedia-commons` for historical photographs, maps, and documents, but ultimately, all attempts to find suitable public-domain source material failed to meet the query's intent. As a result, the medium decision shifted from a true 'collage' to a 'generated-image' that visually *mimics* the aesthetic of an aged, fragmented collage, incorporating elements of distorted historical photography and digital glitch art. The final artifact is a single, static image, entirely generated, embodying the concept of constructed history through its fabricated visual texture and composition.