Refik Anadol Is Launching the World’s First Museum of A.I. Art

Refik Anadol, who made headlines when his monumental work Unsupervised – Machine Hallucinations was acquired by MoMA, is set to make history by opening the world’s first institution dedicated entirely to championing, promoting and showcasing the creative synergy between art and A.I. Scheduled for a 2025 debut, DATALAND will be located in The Grand LA, the Frank Gehry-designed development in Los Angeles’ cultural epicenter, close to other important L.A. cultural institutions, such as The Broad, MOCA, The Music Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, REDCAT and The Colburn School. The opening will be, Anadol told Observer, the realization of a long-held dream. “With DATALAND, we will be able to create and exhibit immersive experiences that fully integrate digital art with architectural spaces in collaboration with renowned firms like Gensler and Arup.”

As a pioneer in using A.I. as a medium, Anadol has been lauded for his exploration of the creative potential of these technologies, which examine the relationship between the human brain, digital data processing and physical space. His works, created via Refik Anadol Studio, have been exhibited worldwide in more than seventy cities on six continents, pushing forward the possible collaboration between media art, neuroscience, architecture and machine intelligence.

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The studio’s story begins in Los Angeles, where Anadol arrived in 2012 to pursue a graduate degree in Design Media Arts at UCLA, where he eventually became a professor. In 2014, artist and cultural researcher Efsun Erkılıç joined him to establish Refik Anadol Studio. Just over ten years later, DATALAND will give the studio a permanent home, blending human creativity, digital art and data-driven experiences to transform how we see the world. Anadol envisions it as a space where media architecture and digital art merge seamlessly into the physical environment, pushing the boundaries of A.I.-driven art.

The opening will be a full-circle moment for the Studio, as the new museum will be located right across the street from Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, where Anadol presented in 2018 one of his most important and ambitious projects to date, the WDCH Dreams, celebrating the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Centennial: images originated from L.A.Philharmonic orchestra’s digital archives and translated them into data points were then mapped and projected on the undulating surface of the building creating a hypnotic and immersive experience of the architecture as it opened up to the power of human imagination.

Additionally, the space will provide the studio with a platform to display a visual archive of its journey so far, featuring past projects and tracing the evolution of its research. “While DATALAND will primarily focus on creating new, site-specific projects exclusive to the museum we plan to also feature some key projects from our past to offer visitors a glimpse into the broader context of our work,” the artist explained.

Erkılıç, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, elaborated in a press statement: “Having our own space allows us to dream without boundaries. DATALAND will be a place where audiences of all ages are transported to new worlds of discovery and inspiration, redefining learning and community and igniting the human spirit through the beauty of collective data.”

Anadol emphasized that the main focus will be on developing fresh, original artworks that push the envelope of what is possible in digital and A.I. art by uniting pioneers in the arts, science, A.I. and cutting-edge technology research under Refik Anadol Studio’s artistic leadership. “We are deeply committed to supporting emerging artists,” he added, “ensuring DATALAND is an inclusive space that champions diverse voices within the digital art community.”

The studio has already inspired a new generation of artists in Turkey and beyond, especially through recent exhibitions at Istanbul Contemporary and across his home country. “Seeing Turkish artists pushing the boundaries of art, technology and A.I. fills me with pride, and I’m excited to see how they will shape the future of digital art,” Anadol concluded. “Since beginning my journey, I’ve dreamed of moving digital art out of the margins and into the mainstream. It’s inspiring to witness this vision coming to life.”

For its inaugural exhibition, Refik Anadol Studio will present the Large Nature Model, the world’s first open-source A.I. model trained solely on nature data. Developed over a decade using ethically collected photos, sounds and data from sixteen tropical rainforests—in the Amazon, Africa and Southeast Asia—as well as from the Smithsonian and the Natural History Museum in London, this project explores nature’s intelligence. Titled Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive, the project uses algorithms to reveal connections within the natural world and aims to inspire new perspectives on sustainability by transforming abstract concepts into multisensory experiences. Some works from this project debuted last month at FUTURA, a new media museum in Buchon, as part of Seoul Art Week, in an exhibition first presented by Serpentine in London.