Esther Mahlangu's Early Memories Documented with AI: Memory of Herding Cows

As part of the "The Pioneering Spirit of Esther Mahlangu" for Google Arts & Culture, the Google Arts & Culture Lab collaborated with Google DeepMind, Domestic Data Streamers, and curator Dr. Nontobeko Ntombela. Within this initiative, the team leveraged Google DeepMind's Veo video model and a "synthetic memories" approach to convert Mahlangu's oral stories into archival-style moving imagery, recreating visual history for her undocumented childhood (1940–1980).

This constructed image formed the basis of a memory that was recreated using this process for Mahlangu’s archive. This memory was inspired by the following quote by Mahlangu:

“At home I would help out in the kitchen and also I would herd cattle. Sometimes I would open for the cattle all alone but not always. It just would depend on the day. I would also milk the cows.”