Dataland, the world's first museum of AI arts, has partnered with L'Oréal Luxe to create an olfactory art experience for its inaugural exhibition Machine Dreams: Rainforest.
Co-founded by Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkılıç, the AI art museum is set to open on 20 June in downtown Los Angeles.
According to a press release, L'Oréal Luxe has created 12 unique "olfactive imprints" that Dataland visitors will experience as "living scents".
Drawing from Refik Anadol Studio’s Large Nature Model (LNM), rainforest-inspired scents will be diffused through Dataland’s smart-diffuser devices, which respond to the artworks and the presence of visitors.
"This collaboration with L'Oréal Luxe is a fascinating breakthrough. Together, we are pushing the boundaries of what art can be," said Anadol.
"By combining artworks with a unique fragrance model, we are no longer just visualising data, we are breathing life into it. I am thrilled to share this unique dialogue between human sensory experiences and machine intelligence with the world."
Among the scents diffused throughout the museum are 'Scent of Rain', which delivers a hyper-realistic atmosphere of humid earth after rain, and 'Scent of Data', which aims to replicate the algorithmic pulsation of code.
Cyril Chapuy, president of L'Oréal Luxe, said: "I have always deeply admired Refik Anadol's visionary artistic work. I am incredibly proud that L'Oréal Luxe is collaborating with him on Dataland, placing olfaction at the very centre of the museum and pushing the boundaries of unexpected fragrance creation."
Inaugural exhibition "pushes the boundaries of what art can be"
Machine Dreams: Rainforest unfolds across Dataland's five galleries, serving as "a narrative of a deepening relationship between machine intelligence and the natural world".
Anadol's time in the rainforest inspired the development of the Large Nature Model, the AI system underpinning Machine Dreams: Rainforest.
The world’s first open-source AI model based solely on nature data, the Large Nature Model incorporates first-hand data gathered from 16 rainforest environments across the globe.
Machine Dreams: Rainforest will be on view from 20 June through 31 January 2027.
Images courtesy of Dataland
