Imagine becoming another version of yourself. What would you change? What might you reveal?
A series of exhibitions at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum examines how photography has served across time as a tool for self-expression and reinvention, enabling artists to question and challenge notions of personal identity. Persona: Photography and the Re-Imagined Self (February 19 – May 10, 2026) explores how both historic and contemporary artists have used the medium to construct and project a persona: an alter ego distinct from the self they present publicly.
ACT Director and Professor Azra Akšamija is one of the 30 artists whose work is presented in this exhibition. Her provocative piece, Hallucinating Traditions (2024), probes the intersection of artificial intelligence, fashion, and cultural identity through animated portraits of Akšamija adorned in speculative headpieces. Drawing from a broad dataset of Akšamija’s likeness alongside historical costume references, advanced AI was trained to generate morphing images that fuse visual elements from multiple cultures and time periods.
As the portraits fluidly transform, they unsettle fixed ideas of tradition and identity. The AI-generated designs imagine a future in which technology actively shapes personal adornment and cultural expression. At once speculative and reflective, the project meditates on how emerging technologies influence our understanding of self and heritage.
