AFTERIMAGE: An Archive for Things That Refuse to Disappear

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 4: Ghost in the Machine

What I Built

AFTERIMAGE is an interactive digital archive inspired by abandoned computer systems, analog horror, forgotten memories, and the Día de los Muertos tradition.

The idea behind the project is simple: what if a computer could preserve the things that people leave behind?

Instead of building another generic AI chatbot, I created a fictional archive where users can explore memories, generate mysterious stories, and preserve personal tributes.

The project has four main features:

• Ghost Terminal: An AI-powered terminal that generates fictional, eerie story continuations based on user prompts.
• Memory Vault: A personal archive where users can save, view, delete, and export memories.
• Digital Ofrenda: A digital tribute space inspired by Día de los Muertos, allowing users to preserve names, memories, and personal messages.
• Lost Frequencies: A collection of fictional radio transmissions that make the archive feel like a forgotten communication system.

I interpreted the Ghost in the Machine theme as the idea of something seemingly forgotten still leaving traces behind.

AFTERIMAGE turns that idea into an interactive experience.

Demo

The project is designed to run locally in a browser using Visual Studio Code and Live Server.

aadyadwivedi67-oss.github.io

A public deployment.

Code

The project is built using separate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files.

Project files:

• index.html — Website structure and sections.
• style.css — Visual design, animations, and responsive layout.
• script.js — Application logic, AI integration, memory storage, and interactions.

The source code can be published as a GitHub repository.

How I Built It

I built AFTERIMAGE using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, with open-source AI running directly in the browser.

The AI component uses:

• DistilGPT-2: An open-weight language model used for generating fictional text.
• Transformers.js: An open-source JavaScript library that allows machine-learning models to run directly in the browser.
• localStorage: Used to preserve memories and digital tributes locally in the browser.

The Ghost Terminal loads the DistilGPT-2 model through Transformers.js and uses it to generate story continuations based on user input.

One important design decision was avoiding a custom AI backend, paid API keys, and Ollama.

The model runs in the browser. Its initial download requires an internet connection, and cached assets may allow subsequent use without downloading the model again.

The other features use JavaScript and browser storage to provide an interactive archive experience.

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

Open innovation was important to AFTERIMAGE because I wanted to experiment with AI without making the entire project dependent on a closed, centralized API.

Using an open-weight model and an open-source JavaScript framework made browser-based AI experimentation possible without requiring a paid API key or a dedicated AI server.

It also makes the project easier for other developers to inspect, modify, and extend.

For a project centered around memories and personal archives, keeping data stored locally is another meaningful design choice.

Open-source tools make it possible to experiment, learn, customize, and build without needing access to expensive infrastructure.

The Spirit of It

AFTERIMAGE is built around the idea that not everything disappears completely.

Old photographs, forgotten messages, unfinished stories, and memories can all leave traces behind.

I wanted the website to feel like discovering an old computer that still has something left to tell.

The visual direction combines a vintage digital archive with the atmosphere of a forgotten shrine. The Ghost Terminal represents the machine, the Memory Vault represents what people preserve, and the Digital Ofrenda represents the things we choose to remember.

The goal was not simply to make an AI generate text. It was to give that interaction a setting, a purpose, and a story.

Some things disappear. Others become afterimages.

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Thanks for participating in Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 4.