Alejandro Rendón, a resident of Las Chapas, combines his work at a seafood company with sharing the history of Málaga through animations generated with artificial intelligence.
Alejandro Rendón, a resident of the neighbourhood of Las Chapas in Málaga, dedicates his afternoons to bringing the city's historical archive to life with the help of artificial intelligence. In the mornings, he works as a salesman at Pescados El Buque S.L., a Málaga-based company dedicated to the export of seafood and cephalopods. According to Diario Sur, this 40-year-old creator has been combining both roles for a few months now, since he began posting animations based on publicly accessible real photographs from archives such as the University of Málaga or the City Hall.
On his account @vermalaga, Rendón incorporates digital avatars generated with AI to narrate past events. The project began in 2019 with the idea of giving a voice to the entire province, although it now focuses on the capital. "I have always been fascinated by the black and white photographs from Málaga's historical archive. Combining the archive photographs with artificial intelligence is something that has been on my mind since last year, and I have finally started to bring this project to life," he explains.
The origin of this initiative dates back to his time in the United Kingdom, where he noticed that many tourists spent their holidays in central Málaga "eating pizzas or hamburgers," missing out on "the real essence" of the province. After returning to Spain and visiting approximately 75 of the 103 documented Málaga towns, capturing their culture through photography, Alejandro decided to focus on the history of the capital. "I love photography, technology, and history. In fact, I took two sabbatical years doing courses and studying to learn about these three things," he adds.
The response from his followers is divided into two currents: 50% receive the pieces with nostalgia for the beauty of the past, while the other 50% points out that "old Málaga" suffered from high levels of precariousness. For this reason, Rendón has begun dedicating projects to recreating everyday life in historic neighbourhoods such as El Perchel or La Trinidad and traditional groups like the marengos. "I am trying to recreate life in that precarious Málaga that people want to see, from Perchel, from Trinidad, from the marengos. Not only telling the city's history but also valuing that this city has been formed thanks to the people," he states.
In his professional role, Rendón joined Pescados El Buque four or five years ago as a warehouse worker, after his two sabbatical years dedicated to studying photography and digital editing. His professional worth led him to the office, where he manages the client portfolio of a commercial route that covers Galicia, Asturias, Basque Country, La Rioja, Castilla-La Mancha, Navarra, and Aragón. He also employs AI there: "I use artificial intelligence a lot. For example, the search agents that I can set to work in a secondary role while I can do other things. That helps me a lot when it comes to presenting and defending the product or knowing the current customs situation," he details.
Rendón manages his creations under the brand Gomaproducti0ns, with which he brings many Málaga residents back to how their city used to be or helps them discover what everything that is now seen as normal was like before.
You may also like
