Chrys Vilvang

Chrys Vilvang is exploring the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the longstanding relationship between photography and memory.

His multi-disciplinary work examines the production of meaning through images and how these processes are being transformed by tools that intervene, remediate, and alter our relationship with our photographic pasts.

He is currently investigating the increased integration of AI into the Apple Photos App with a focus on how content is automatically curated for the ‘Memories’ feature. Chrys has a BA in Cultural Studies from McGill University (2011), an MA in Media Studies from the University of Amsterdam (2015), and an MA in Media Production from Toronto Metropolitan University (2017).

He has extensive experience as a teaching assistant in the department of Communication Studies and the department of Design and Computation Arts. He has also served as a research assistant with the Montreal Signs Project and as a sessional instructor for COMS 423/523: Media Art and Aesthetics at Concordia University and COMS 481: Advanced Studies in New Media and Society at the University of Calgary.

Thesis title: You Have a New Memory: Apple Photos and Artificial Intelligence

Publications:

Vilvang, C. (2024). Between automated memory and history: blocking ‘sensitive locations’ from Apple Memories. Memory, Mind & Media, 3, e8. doi:10.1017/mem.2024.4

Works:

Radio: https://omny.fm/shows/cjad-800/the-iphone-algorithm-blocks-potentially-upsetting

Talk: https://www.youtube.com/live/sYl_ZbFj7Ns?si=eQ7n-I0gzXnbKMt4