Cambridge academic Dr Gilly Carr has used the ‘deepfake’ technology – also known as ‘deep nostalgia’ – to bring to life a photograph of Dorothea Le Brocq who was given the honour of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for hiding a Jewish woman in her St Helier home during the Occupation.
Dr Carr explained that she had been experimenting with technology used by her colleagues to animate reconstructions of people from pre-history to the medieval period on subjects connected with the Occupation.
The photograph of Dorothea Le Brocq was used with the permission of the Jersey Archive and the late Mrs Le Brocq’s family but Dr Carr’s experience of the reactions of relatives to images posted on a closed group Facebook page – both positive and negative – has highlighted the fact that the technology raises ethical issues.
‘We do the dead a disservice if we use their images for our own entertainment, without their permission or that of their family. We might also add to the trauma of the family if this reanimation of the dead is done without permission or warning,’ Dr Carr said.
‘There is an educational argument to be made for using such animations, but only as long as they are accompanied by information highlighting the inauthenticity and potential inaccuracy of the images, and stating how they were generated. The dead, after all, are beyond harm, but their relatives are not.’
The image of Dorothea Le Brocq – or Dorothea Weber as she became – is taken from the Archive’s collection of identity card photographs, taken close to the time when she gave refuge to Hedwig Bercu, an Austrian Jew who remained in the Island after the Occupation and later concealed herself in Dorothea Le Brocq’s home.
The technology takes the historic photograph, colours it and then gives it the appearance of a filmed image with facial expressions which alter.
Dr Carr discusses the technology and its application on page nine of Monday’s JEP.
