The University of Granada “resurrects” Lorca and Falla with artificial intelligence to congratulate Christmas

In its Christmas greetings, the University pays tribute to its 500 years of history, which will be commemorated in 2031, although before that, in the imminent 2026, several are planned to commemorate the fifth centenary of the signing of the entity’s founding charter by the Emperor. Charles V.

It is an audiovisual production “in which the past and the future of the institution go hand in hand”, since it has recovered, thanks to Artificial Intelligence techniques, such notable personalities who are part of the history of the UGR as the poets Federico García Lorca and Elena Martin Vivaldithe composer Manuel de Falla or Eudoxie Pirizthe first woman to study medicine in Granada. Not in Andalusia, a merit that belongs to Maria del Mar Terrones Villanuevaalso originally from Granada, specifically born in Orcéwho studied this career at Cadiz.

This union is also represented by the grandmother and the grandson who are the protagonists of these congratulations, which go through some examples of the Royal Hospitalheadquarters of the Rectorate of the UGR, while the little one discovers with fascination how some of the most significant characters in the history of the UGR come to life before his eyes.

Past, present and future

This is the case, for example, of the image of old tram of Granada which crossed Escuelas Street, next to Derecho – there are still vestiges of the railway tracks very close to this faculty -, represented in a 1968 photograph that the child contemplates in the cafeteria and which puts this means of transport back in motion, more than half a century after it stopped working.

The magic of cinema and AI bring to life in this video inside the Royal Library of the Hospital, the composer Manuel de Falla and his Granada work “Invocatio ad individuam trinitatem”, created in 1935 at the UGR to commemorate the death of Lope de Vega.

Also very nice is the tribute to Eudoxia Píriz, the first woman to study medicine at the UGR, whose classmates they stand up to applaud him in the courtyard of the old faculty on Rector López Argüeta street, in a photo from 1912.

Additionally, Garcia Lorca literally comes out of your own academic recorddated 1914, when she was studying at the Faculty of Letters, like the poet Elena Martín Vivaldi, who also appears in her academic file, which dates from 1933.

A competent team

Before leaving the library, the woman takes the book ‘1531-2031’ of the V Centenary of the University of Granada, an event that gives meaning to the whole history, and at the end of the video the statue of the founder of the UGR, Emperor Charles V, winks at the little one, just before the motto of this campaign: “Because there are still many stories to tell“.

The video, produced by Carlos Centeno, Director of Communication of the UGR, was possible thanks to the collaboration of different areas and services of the UGR: the Office of Communication Management; the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit and the Resource Production Center of the Digital University, with the support of the UGR Library, its University Archives and researchers from the Faculty of Communication and Documentation, who were responsible for animating the images using AI.

The production included extensive documentation and research to locate the historical images that are part of the content, then animated using artificial intelligence technology. The protagonists of the video, which required several months of work, were the little ones Javier Zurita And Rosario Martinezsenior student of the Permanent Open Training Class and member of the theater troupe of this entity.

This is not the first time that the University of Granada surprises with a video for a special occasion. Last July, students, teachers and even the rector, Pedro Marketthey got involved in another audiovisual project with which the course closed and they wished a good summer vacation. “You need a vacation, make the most of it,” was his name.