McCann and instax Recover Lost Photos with [Mind]ography Experiment

A staggering amount of digital photos – and the memories they capture – are lost every day. An estimated 57% of young Australians have lost a precious digital photo, and didn’t have a physical copy. But are those memories lost forever?

instax™ has worked with leading researchers to create the world’s first printed memories, in a campaign conceptualised by McCann + HERO Australia. 

Lost memories were reconstructed from the mind of Nicole Toum, a support worker from Sydney. After Nicole tragically lost her father in 2018, she also lost dozens of digital photos; and she chose three of these core memories to be recovered through [Mind]ography. 

“This is literally cutting-edge, mind-reading research,” said Dr Paul Scotti, of Princeton Neuroscience Institute, who led the experiment. ‘We scanned Nicole’s brain with Functional MRI as she saw and imagined thousands of images, training our algorithm to recognise her brain patterns. Then when she imagined her memories, the AI could create a visual reconstruction of what she was imagining.’

Nicole’s memories became the centrepiece of an exhibition at China Heights Gallery in Sydney, Australia. Reflecting on her experience, Nicole said “I came in not knowing what to expect. The MRI’s were exhausting, but it’s been amazing. Extremely cathartic, joyous… having these memories back, it feels like being home.”

With memories at the core of our brand, the instax™ team was delighted with the outcome of this groundbreaking project. “Here’s the fun thing about memories, we all see them so differently. So we asked the question - what if you could print memories as you recall them in your mind? Not just a photo capturing a moment, but what you remember in your mind from that moment. What if we could print THAT memory? Well, we are excited to have printed the world’s first “memories” through the [Mind]ography campaign, thanks to Nicole Toum, Dr Paul Scotti and the team at RINSW”, said Mary Georgievski, general manager photo imaging, FUJIFILM Australia.

Since the exhibition, Instax™ has seen an 8x increase in social engagement and a reach of 12 million so far (impressive given Australia’s population of 26 million people). 

Mitchell Sutton and Josh Campbell, senior creatives from McCann + HERO Australia commented, “[Mind]ography is one of those ’what if’ ideas we’d normally put aside pretty quickly. But AI is unlocking new possibilities so fast, you almost can’t just say ‘that’s impossible’… you’ve got to check first. It’s fantastic to be able to visualise data in such a unique way, plus it’s easy to see how this kind of tech will change lives. Being able to help Nicole recover her lost memories was a privilege, and we can’t wait to see where Dr Scotti’s research ends up.”

This month, FUJIFILM Australia is celebrating its 20th anniversary as part of FUJIFILM Group, marking two decades of commitment to innovation, quality, and customer satisfaction in the Australian market. Since becoming part of the FUJIFILM Group in 2004, FUJIFILM Australia has been at the forefront of imaging and information technology, transforming how Australians capture and share memories.