Synthetic Pasts: The Generative Historicity of Artificial Intelligence
the roles that history and historicity play in AI-generated text and image production
Synthetic Pasts examines the roles that history and historicity play in AI-generated text and image production. The project scrutinises how generative AI models such as ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion inherit, transform, and reframe historical data, raising questions about the cultural and epistemological implications of machine-generated historiography. By situating contemporary AI within media history and media theory, the project develops critical perspectives on the intersections of historical representation, synthetic content, and human creativity.
This paper investigates digital comics—particularly webcomics and webtoons—as emerging forms of cultural heritage, analyzing their exponential global influence alongside the limitations of traditional heritage frameworks in systematically preserving them. The UNESCO heritage model, rooted in concepts of physical fixity and authenticity, is shown as inadequate for born-digital works like comics, which derive meaning from technological infrastructure, dynamic platforms, and ongoing community interaction rather than static material forms. Drawing on heritage futures and digital materiality theories, the authors argue that digital comics exemplify "temporal authenticity," evolving through continual transformation and algorithmic curation. The paper details how platform recommendation systems and analytics directly shape which comics achieve cultural visibility and preservation, while community-driven initiatives—such as The Flashpoint Archive—demonstrate effective models for holistic, grassroots digital preservation beyond institutional reach. Ultimately, the study calls for new theoretical and practical approaches to heritage, recognizing digital comics as both cultural artifacts and dynamic, platform-specific vernacular expressions.
@article{Manouach1985532,author={Manouach, Ilan and Foka, Anna},institution={Département Médias, Culture et Communication, Humanités Numériques et Cultures Vidéoludiques, Traverses, Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres, University of Liége, Liège, Belgium},journal={Heritage},number={8},eid={295},title={Comics as Heritage : Theorizing Digital Futures of Vernacular Expression},volume={8},doi={10.3390/heritage8080295},keywords={digital comics, cultural heritage, webtoons, digital materiality, community preservation},year={2025},}