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Reviving Old Places in Macedonia With AI #
Yugoslavian Visuals – A visual journey around the former nation of Yugoslavia, is a fantastic X/Twitter profile. It publishes rare images of old or non-existing places in former Yugoslavia.
Skopje, the capital of today’s North Macedonia, is in a lot of these images. The city was destroyed by a devastating earthquake in 1963 and rebuilt from the grounds-up with the support of the international community. Skopje was then part of Socialist Republic of Macedonia and it was an entirely different city from the one you can visit today.
A lot of people are surprised when they find out about a special place, they had no idea existed in their town, before they were born… especially the younger generations. So, I thought maybe I can revive these memories with the help of AI and the fantastic images of Yugoslavian Visuals as a reference. Some other cities are featured as well.
So, yes, all of the videos included in this post are AI-generated.
Setup #
There are plenty of tools you can use these days, but I decided to work with ComfyUI and try out the MiniMax H3 large language model, via the existing video generation templates. The results were remarkable! I created these videos on an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070Ti with 16GB RAM.
Aside from the electricity costs, these videos were produced basically for free by using open weight LLM models and not by paying to big corporations. Having open models will continue to have a great importance as the AI technology develops further.
The Revivals #
It all started with a beautiful shot of Boulevard Partizanski Odredi while Skopje was being re-built after the earthquake.
Then came the Old Bazaar top-view shot in the 1970s. What is being built as the department store “Most” in the background on the first shot, can be seen completed in another one, from the other Old Bazaar entrance.
During the 1960s, the Macedonia Square in Skopje looked very different from today.
So did the Telecommunication Centre and Central Post Office in Skopje in 1980s. This distinctive building was an integral element of Kenzo Tange’s plan for reconstruction of Skopje after the earthquake in 1963 and one of the world’s most popular Brutalist buildings.
Of course, we are not going to miss the Cultural Center (Dom na Kulturata) in the city of Bitola during the 1980s… (Still an important place in Bitola. It hosts almost all big events in the city.)
Or this beautiful night shot of the Skopje Railway Station in 1985…
Or this other shot in Skopje, at a key corner within the Gradski Trgovski Centar shopping mall in the 1970s.
The unforgettable city of Ohrid looked and felt different during the 1980s. More rustic, less urban.
Anyone up for a traditional carpet from the open market in the city of Struga, during the 1980s?
The Makedonium or Ilinden monument in Krushevo, is yet another remarkable place in Macedonia, as seen below during the 1980s.
And finally, we end our little time-travel adventure back in Skopje, to a beautiful 100% cyberpunk night shot of new residential buildings next to the riverside of Vardar in the 1970s.
Now What? #
None of these videos are perfect. In fact, there are many, easily noticeable mistakes that look strange and often, funny, but they are far from AI-slop.
I am born in the 1980s and I’ve personally experienced almost all of these places at the time these photos were taken. What was mind-blowing to me is how easy it was to recreate (almost) the original look and feel from just a single low quality image. In my head, this capability resonates in many different ways. I mean, it’s not very hard to create a short film that is taking place in that cyberpunk Skopje. How about a video game based on the same single image reference? A photo of a loved one converted into an interactive hologram?
All hype aside, this is a remarkable time in history and I’m happy to be able to witness it. This was a really fun weekend project! Until next time…