Dataland, the world’s first AI art museum, is the brainchild of Refik Anadol. The media artist and director creates large-scale art installations using collections of publicly-available data and machine learning algorithms. A pioneer in the world of AI art, he established the Los Angeles-based Refik Anadol Studio in 2014 to produce immersive media art for anyone, any age, and from any background.
The award-winning studio has caught the attention of leading tech companies, groundbreaking researchers and cutting-edge thought leaders to produce projects that have been shown in more than 750 cities on six continents.
“I’m a media artist,” he tells blooloop.
“I’ve been practising since 2008 with data. In 2014, I started my studio in Los Angeles, where I also got my second MFA degree at the UCLA department of design media arts, which was basically the idea of opening a studio and practicing what I believe is the future of art making, using art, science and technology.
“In 2016, I was the first artist in residence at Google’s Artists + Machine Intelligence (AMI) programme, which allows people like myself to learn AI and how to use big data and cloud computation.”
Anadol says: “Me and my team learnt how to use these extraordinary techniques and after almost nine years, we have become the pioneers of the field. I invented techniques with my team that are pushing the boundaries of traditional painting, sculpture and performances, and we implemented algorithmic imagination across sound, image, video and scent – meaning we are also creating olfactory experiences.
“This is a very exciting time, and we also recently announced our AI museum, Dataland. We are in a super exciting time of art making.”
Immersive media art for all
Anadol’s work has been exhibited at places including New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Sphere in Las Vegas.
The two-part series for Sphere included Machine Hallucinations: Space and Machine Hallucinations: Nature. The former utilised millions of raw images captured and recorded by the International Space Station and the NASA Hubble Space Telescope. The latter used more than 300 million publicly available photographs of flora and fauna.
Other presentations by Refik Anadol Studio include Living Archive: Nature at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland; Echoes of the Earth at London’s Serpentine Galleries; and Living Architecture: Casa Batlló at Antoni Gaudí’s iconic building in Barcelona, Spain.
In addition to his studio work, Anadol is a lecturer at UCLA’s department of design media arts.
But back to Dataland, set to be the world’s first museum of AI arts when it opens in downtown LA this year. It is located at The Grand LA, a $1 billion mixed-use development designed by Frank Gehry, and described as a revolutionary museum dedicated to art, science, technology and AI research.
A space where human imagination is fused with machine intelligence, Dataland has been designed in collaboration with award-winning architecture firm Gensler and global sustainable development consultancy Arup.
We are in this new era of AI computation, quantum computing and biology. Humanity is rapidly changing
The Grand LA happens to be situated directly across the street from Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, where Refik Anadol Studio projected the history of the Los Angeles Philharmonic as a piece of algorithmic video onto the exterior of the building in 2018 to celebrate the orchestra’s 100th anniversary.
Anadol says, “I’m an independent artist, meaning I don’t have a gallery representation. I don’t come from classical art training or societies, so I was a bit of an outlier in the beginning.
“We work directly with galleries, museums and all the incredible art institutions, but coming from uncharted territory allowed me and my team to really work with incredible people, from MoMA and the Guggenheim to auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s. And from the Los Angeles Philharmonic to Google, Nvidia and Microsoft.”
He adds: “What I learnt is: it’s an incredible time to innovate, but innovating is very hard in this field, financially, technically, emotionally and spiritually. It’s not that easy to make breakthroughs. I thought that perhaps we needed our own space, our institution, where we do this very clearly while we are also doing it with other institutions.”
Anadol and his team are developing “a completely new institution, from scratch”, he says.
“Every single institution from the last century or the last couple of centuries, their agenda was grounded in the things happening around them. But at the moment, we are in this new era of AI computation, quantum computing and biology. Humanity is rapidly changing.”
Dataland to use AI for good
Anadol says, “The museum is a reflection of our time, but also aims to use AI for good and to solve problems like accessibility, ethical data collection and use, and sustainability by computing with renewable energy. We are trying our very best to be a good example while innovating and creating breakthroughs.”
With Dataland, he is working to reinvent the museum for the AI era. The new venue’s inaugural exhibitions will put on view works from Refik Anadol Studio.
“I see Dataland as a collaborative institution focused on co-creation, [as a space for] human machine collaborations,” Anadol says. “Our work has focused on this for many years, but now the institution will have the same vision. It will bring the humans and machines together. It will do this ethically, equally, and carefully. And it will feature many masterminds; people who have been exploring their creativity for a long time.”
Efsun Erkiliç, Dataland’s co-founder and chief strategy officer, previously said the museum “is a place where human creativity meets innovation, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary”.
“Our studio has presented exhibitions in incredible places all around the world, but having a space of our own gives us a blank canvas to work with, allowing us to truly push ourselves to dream without boundaries,” he said.
“Dataland will be a place where audiences of all ages are transported to new worlds of discovery, inspiration, and wonder. We are building a visionary museum that redefines learning and community, igniting the human spirit and fueling a journey into the beauty of our collective memories – the world of data.”
Refik Anadol Studio is made up of artists, architects, data scientists, and researchers from diverse backgrounds. Studio members come from 10 different countries and are collectively fluent in 14 languages.
Anadol and his team say they paint with a thinking brush, providing visualisations of digitised memories. The studio’s site-specific AI data sculptures, live audiovisual (AV) performances and immersive installations take many forms.
AI means possibilities, but possibilities come with responsibilities
“What makes our projects very unique is that we collect our own data and train our own models. That’s a very different approach, like an artist creating a thinking brush,” he says. “Over the last nine years, we’ve worked with more than five billion images. We’ve learnt so much about how to train AI models.
“Also, in our exhibitions, you can see a process wall or process artwork that reveals behind the scenes, including the mechanics, what data we use, which type of algorithm, and who invented it. This information is all very clearly articulated in our work.”
“As I always say, AI means possibilities, but possibilities come with responsibilities,” Anadol adds. “We innovate a lot with hardware and software, and we invent techniques for each project. It’s a very innovative studio with a lot of experiments, like a lab.”
Dataland’s inaugural exhibitions will be expressed through Refik Anadol Studio’s Large Nature Model. This is the world’s first open-source AI model based solely on nature data.
“I love nature, I have a huge respect and love for nature like many artists. I grew up in Istanbul, next to a forest. Nature is the most important and inspiring thing to humanity,” Anadol says. “I believe that nature is complex and needs AI to really understand how it communicates, how it grows, and what else we can do for it. Maybe this is the perfect job for AI.”
Large Nature Model: a living encyclopaedia
Refik Anadol Studio gathers data through its “incredible partners”, which Anadol calls “data partners”.
“We’ve reached half a billion images of ethical nature, collected ethically by partnering with institutions such as the Smithsonian, London’s Natural History Museum, and Getty, among others. That makes our project super fresh, because we got the permission in the first place, and then asked other partners such as Nvidia and Google to be sure that our data could be used in complex situations and create systems.
“And we created the Large Nature Model. The artworks at Dataland will use this AI model.”
“I’m calling [Large Nature Model] generative reality. It’s not like VR, AR or XR. It’s generating reality all the time, constantly. I think we are creating something extraordinary. I’m also calling it a Living Encyclopedia,” he says.
This new Living Encyclopedia, launched earlier this year, is affordable at $10 per month, Anadol says: “It’s nature-friendly, student-friendly, and accessible.”
After the flagship Dataland opens in Los Angeles, the plan is to expand the concept to other markets, he tells us. “We are getting an incredible response since announcing the museum from cultural leaders and world leaders because I shared our vision at the World Economic Forum and the UN. I think we will definitely see Dataland around the world.”
Reinventing the museum for the AI era
Due to advances in AI, the visitor experience is transforming. Companies in the attractions industry are using the technology to streamline operations, enhance interactivity and personalise the guest experience.
At Dataland, AI is the attraction itself, and the technology will feature across the new museum. Anadol says it will be “everywhere”. Dataland will be “on the edge of imagination with AI”, he adds.
AI and other emerging technologies will continue to impact the arts and entertainment sectors. Anadol says it will be “incredible” and “ever-changing”.
“Working with AI, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring in terms of breakthroughs. With AI, the innovation progress is remarkably fast. This is a great challenge, but I feel that in every single creative field, it will always be an ever-changing moment,” he says.
“I believe that it’s all about human and machine creativity. I don’t think it’s only human or only machine anymore, but that it should be a time for co-creation. Finding that balance will be a beautiful new challenge for all of us.”
Dataland is “on the edge of imagination with AI”
He adds, “We also have to make sure that machines are not doing everything that we like doing. It’s not a feature [of Dataland] that the machine does the creativity, and we do nothing. We have to be a human-first experience. So, we have to be thoughtful, grounded and have the wisdom to navigate this next chapter of humanity.”
“As an artist, I’m so lucky and grateful that I witnessed the birth of the internet, Web 1, Web 2, Web 3, AI, quantum computation, and many more technological advancements.
“We have the chance to question: what is reality, and what is creativity? I think it’s fascinating to be alive, to ask: what else can we do with this new world?”
AI is becoming part of life. However, concerns are heightening over issues such as potential misuse, possible job losses, ethical matters, and environmental impact.
“I’m always concerned about AI because AI is the most advanced technology we’ve ever had,” Anadol says. “Concerned should be our default mode. I don’t think it’s possible to not be concerned with such a powerful technology. Because, in human history, we have never had a machine or a technology that has a reasoning capacity or even an intelligence capacity. It’s the first time that this is happening in human history.
“But I see the bright side of things, and I do things – I don’t just talk. I see that it can be powerful and beneficial for humanity. Of course, it’s a mirror for humanity. It will exactly reflect who we are. If you are aware of that, it’s not that hard to navigate. Then again, we have to put lots of thought into it, and have a lot of discussions around it.
Concerned should be our default mode
“If AI means anything and everything, it has to be for anyone and everyone. If we can find the balance between this context and discourse, we should be in good shape.”
Images courtesy of Refik Anadol Studio
