Memórias do futuro: um diálogo com o passado sustentável

The “Memories of the Future” project proposes an artistic intervention at the Sanatório de Mont'alto (Valongo, Portugal), a site of architectural ruin and cultural memory. Using digital photographs of the location, processed through generative artificial intelligence (AI), fourteen short videos were created that reimagine the abandoned building as a scenario revitalized by principles of ecological sustainability. The figure of a Panda toy, integrated into the images, acts as a narrative agent symbolizing environmental care. The work manifests as an interactive tablet-based artifact and a non-interactive film. This paper details the sanatorium's historical context and the project's human-machine curation methodology, analyzing the work within the theoretical framework of post-photography and digital heritage. The experience of its in situ exhibition is discussed in light of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) theory and Walter Benjamin's crisis of narration. Furthermore, it develops a critical discussion on the implications of this artistic praxis, analyzing the displacement of the concept of “aura” to the prompt in the age of AI reproduction and confronting the project's ecological theme with the environmental footprint of the technology itself (the “Red AI” vs. “Green AI” paradox), establishing a dialogue between artistic creation and the paradoxes of digital sustainability.