How to Find the Soul of a Sailor is a deeply personal artwork exploring how artificial intelligence can preserve – and give new life to – the memory of a loved one. The immersive hybrid experience examines the past and future of the Mediterranean Sea through the eyes of Kasia Molga's late father, Tadeusz Molga. Tadeusz was a devoted sailor who meticulously documented his passion for the ocean. After his passing, Kasia was left with a collection of his photographs and handwritten journals. She combines these with climate prediction data using The New Real Observatory, a specialised experiential Small Data Set AI platform. The results reimagine her father’s words 100 years into the future from their original dates. The “old” diaries from 1982/83 and “new” diaries from the year 2082/83 become the foundation for an immersive audio/visual installation. Visitors are invited to stand on the ‘navigational bridge’ where they are immersed in a 5:1 soundscape. Behind them is a visualisation of the ship’s wake - presenting the sea conditions from the original diaries. Ahead is a visualisation of the future sea conditions - the result of using climate prediction models and Tadeusz Molga’s diaries with The New Real AI tool.

Three small monitors depict radar with the geolocation of the ship on the Mediterranean Sea. They show the changing coastline of Europe and Africa impacted by climate change, annotated with animated notes in Tadeusz’s handwriting. This transforms into visuals of events onboard that day. These fragments of life are impacted by the new environmental conditions and their subsequent effect on the emotional state of the sailors in December 2082. Visitors can listen to this narrated through headphones while the various visuals.

The visualisations are synchronised so that the sea condition matches the events of the day. While some parts are taxing, others are poetic and funny, reflecting aspects of Tadeusz’s personality. For example, one of the prevalent subjects in the AI generated writing is the presence of flowers and plants on the sea.

The audio/visual installation is accompanied by supporting artefacts. There are printed samples of ship-logs from the future containing a mix of original and AI generated photographs; notes on sea, weather, and boat conditions; a future journal entry in an AI generated Tadeusz Molga style of handwriting. This is complemented by original nautical charts altered with hand drawn elements informed by the AI experiments and watercolours illustrating the sea from the original entries.

Molga created her own datasets to train models and then used a variety of AI tools to make this work happened. These include The New Real Observatory tools, Tensor Flow based software for training handwriting; Stable Diffusion model for training images; and Runway and Luma Labs for experiments with moving images.

Combining English and Polish, the work creates a bilingual experience that delves into a personal connection with climate change and the digital afterlife. It honours the enduring power of memory while showcasing the benefits and drawbacks of artificial intelligence tools to preserve and transform our personal histories.