Algorithmic postmemory in the age of digital hoarding

The algorithmic turn in photography has transformed memory into a collaboration between humans and machines, fostering digital hoarding —the compulsive accumulation of personal photographs and data that fuels AI systems and reshapes how we remember, forget, and fabricate the past. This article builds on Marianne Hirsch’s postmemory to examine how AI technologies and digital hoarding co-create new forms of memory-making, blurring the boundaries between individual and collective histories. These shifts challenge traditional understandings of authenticity, agency, and representation, while also opening new possibilities for reimagining photographic memory in an AI-driven world. By introducing three original frameworks —algorithmic postmemory, speculative memory landscapes, and curated forgetting; this study critically explores the evolving dynamics of AI-mediated memory. It highlights the cultural, ethical, and theoretical implications of these transformations, emphasizing both their creative potential and risks of distortion and erasure. The study contributes to broader debates on culture, photography, and memory practices, underscoring the need for interdisciplinary and ethical engagement to ensure that algorithmic mediation enhances, rather than diminishes, the richness and complexity of human and collective histories.