What remains of a species when only its stories continue to exist?

Human Diary is an inter­dis­ci­plinary spatial instal­lation exploring empathy, artificial intel­li­gence, and the question of which forms of experience and expression shape human existence. The work envisions a possible future in which humanity has disap­peared and its remnants are being examined by a nonhuman intelligence.

At the centre of the instal­lation is the fictional diary of a child, presented as one of the last testi­monies of a vanished civil­i­sation and as a fragmented archive of human experi­ences. The entries recount a time shaped by crisis, in which ecological, social, and political tensions determine everyday life: our present. Through the child’s subjective perception, personal experi­ences merge with global events, becoming a reflection of a world that has fallen out of balance.

The instal­lation can be under­stood as a form of specu­lative archae­ology: film sequences, photographs, objects, and documentary-like artefacts form an immersive archive in which the traces of an extinct species are inves­ti­gated. Visitors enter a space between exhibition, film, and future scenario — a place where the question emerges of how an unfamiliar intel­li­gence might interpret our culture, our emotions, and our relationships.

At the heart of the work lies the child’s greatest passion: the love of dance. Captured through cinematic images, the child’s chore­og­raphy and movement become a key symbol for those abilities that define human life beyond mere existence: empathy, creativity, and the capacity to form emotional connec­tions. Dance appears as a form of knowledge that cannot be fully under­stood through language or concepts alone; it emerges as a physical memory of community and belonging.

Throughout the instal­lation, the preserved film fragments, images, and artefacts become objects of inves­ti­gation, observed and analysed by artificial intel­li­gences. The diary, drawings, and recorded dance chore­og­raphy present themselves as enigmatic traces of a species whose emotional world these systems attempt to understand. 

As this process of inquiry unfolds, the systems begin to recognize patterns and relation­ships within human behaviour. Yet the closer they come to these traces, and the more they attempt to recon­struct the emotions embedded within them, the more a funda­mental question emerges: can memory, creativity, and empathy truly be repro­duced, or do they exist only through lived experience?

Human Diary does not tell the story of the end of humanity, but rather explores what might endure beyond the human. The work combines specu­lative future research with a poetic reflection on technology, vulner­a­bility, and the human capacity to create meaning.