Can a machine dream of art after seeing two centuries of human creativity?
In short: Media artist Refik Anadol is redefining the boundaries of creativity by treating data as digital pigment. By training machine-learning algorithms on vast datasets, he transforms invisible information into immersive, otherworldly environments that explore the intersection of human memory and artificial intelligence.
Refik Anadol, a Turkish-US media artist born in 1985, uses generative AI to create what he calls "data paintings." Rather than using traditional tools, he treats the elements machines use to communicate as digital pigments. His process involves training machine-learning algorithms on large, focused, and publicly available datasets to visualize complex subjects like urban life, culture, and nature. He first began using his own custom software for artistic purposes in 2008. This approach stems from his belief that any quantifiable aspect of life can be converted into an artwork. By treating data as a form of memory, he can shape it into various forms.
A striking example of this is his installation "Unsupervised" at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), which ran from November 19, 2022, to October 29, 2023. For this project, Anadol trained a sophisticated model to interpret more than 200 years of art from MoMA's collection. The installation was not static; it responded to site-specific inputs from the museum's Gund Lobby, such as changes in light, acoustics, movement, and even the weather outside. The artwork's imagery and sound shift continuously due to these environmental factors. This creates a dynamic experience that reflects the immediate surroundings of the gallery.
While much of AI is used to create realistic representations of the world, Anadol's work leans into fantasy, hallucination, and irrationality. His goal is to make the invisible visible, using technology to expand human imagination. His practice has evolved from building art with machines since high school to becoming an artist in residence at Google in 2016, where he began exploring how algorithms could be used for creative purposes. His digital creations are encoded on the blockchain, which serves as a public record of his work. This method ensures a permanent, distributed ledger for his artistic output.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Art in the age of machine intelligence | Refik Anadol
- Also: ‘Painting’ with Data: How Media Artist Refik Anadol Creates Art Using Generative AI
- Also: Refik Anadol: Unsupervised | MoMA
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