Deep Reckonings (2019-ongoing)
In 2015, Stephanie Lepp launched the narrative podcast ‘Reckonings’, which explores how people expand their political worldviews, transcend extremism, and make other kinds of transformative change. She told stories like that of a deeply conservative Congressman who became a climate advocate, a white supremacist who transcended a life of violence, and the architect of Facebook’s business model who's since devoted his life to tackling technology addiction. Lepp had a wish list of guests - people whose personal transformations she thought would most scale into social change. Then, she discovered the phenomenon of deepfakes.
In early 2019, Stephanie released an imaginary reckoning of Pope Francis on Reckonings, as an audio prototype of what she envisioned doing with synthetic video. Lepp wrote the script, had a voice actor perform it, and explained that it was fiction. To her surprise, listeners loved it. She even heard from survivors of clergy sexual abuse who, knowing it was fake, nevertheless found comfort in it.
‘Deep Reckonings’ has evolved into a series of explicitly-marked deepfake videos that imagine morally courageous versions of our public figures. Donald Trump concedes his lies, Mark Zuckerberg questions his techno-utopianism, and Brett Kavanaugh wrestles with the way he responded to the sexual allegations against him. The videos emphasize their fakery and might be considered deepfakes 2.0 – you know it’s fake and yet it still moves you. With Deep Reckonings, Stephanie Lepp seeks to make critical self-reflection look stunning. So stunning, in fact, that we’re moved to do it and make more room for each other to do it: www.deepreckonings.com
And maybe Rutte will get his turn too…
