A talking-portrait installation for museums and heritage venues. Visitors write a letter on a converted antique typewriter — and a historical figure writes back, in character, with an AI voice and real-time 3D facial animation.
Jan Truijen (1838–1919) was Meijel’s mayor, surveyor, town clerk and MP — a real historical figure whose portrait hangs in Museum Medelo. Visitors sit down at a converted antique typewriter and compose him a letter. When they send it, the portrait comes to life: an AI voice and real-time 3D facial animation reads the letter aloud and replies in character — grounded in the historical archive rather than invented, and honest when it doesn’t know something.
We showed it live to the public for the first time at Museum Medelo’s members-only opening on 20 September 2026 — a working prototype, not yet a permanent unattended installation. Medelo is the proof-of-concept; the format is built to travel.
The talking-portrait format is repeatable: a different historical figure, a different location, the same proven pipeline. If your museum, heritage site, or historic house has a portrait and an archive worth bringing to life, we’d love to hear from you.