R efik Anadol is a media artist and a pioneer in creative machine intelligence. Born in Turkey in 1985, he now lives and works in Los Angeles.

The multicultural nature of Anadol's team is central to his practice, with members from 10 different countries collectively fluent in 14 languages. From the outset, he prioritized sourcing experts in neuroscience, architecture, music, and data science over traditional art-world figures, fostering a unique collaborative environment for his work. Anadol’s projects—ranging from site-specific public art to live audiovisual performances—are deeply human-centric, exploring emotions and the interplay between people and their environments. His overarching question: What does it mean to be human in the 21st century?

Architecture and imagination are pivotal in Anadol’s work. He transforms architectural spaces into canvases, enabling buildings to "dream" and "hallucinate." His fascination with imagination began at the age of eight when his mother brought home a VHS of Blade Runner. The film’s dystopian portrayal of Los Angeles ignited his creativity and became a lasting inspiration, particularly the moment when Rachael discovers her memories are artificial. This prompted Anadol to ask: What can a machine do with someone else’s memories? Like social media, which becomes more intelligent with interaction, could machines learn, process memories, and even dream?

In 2016, Anadol coined the term "AI Data Painting" to describe his process of using data as pigment and artificial intelligence as a "thinking brush." This concept drives his exploration into the poetics of data, dissolving physical boundaries and merging virtual and physical worlds. His innovative use of tools like VVV, a JavaScript-based coding language, enables projection mapping and live programming to regenerate iconic structures with AI creativity.

Anadol’s work challenges humanity’s relationship with computing and AI, which he views as still in its embryonic stages. Swirling masses of digitized pigment, kinetic forms, and vivid storytelling define his aesthetic. His art invites audiences into alternate realities, offering transformative dialogues between architecture and media art.

In 2021, Anadol unveiled Machine Hallucinations — Space. This groundbreaking collection reflects a harmonious blend of cutting-edge technology and artistic expression, inspired by his collaboration with NASA JPL, initiated in early 2018, and his deep engagement with the photographic legacy of space exploration. Employing advanced machine learning algorithms trained on an expansive archive of deep-space imagery captured by satellites and spacecraft, Anadol crafts hypnotic visual narratives that speculate on the mysteries of the cosmos.

Harnessing over two million raw images from the archives of the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), Anadol and his team employed generative adversarial networks (GANs) to translate this immense dataset into a breathtaking collection of visual works. The result is a kaleidoscopic reimagining of the cosmos that transcends the limits of traditional representation.

The present work invites viewers into a meditative exploration of humanity’s enduring fascination with space, delving into the interplay of obscurity and revelation through both digital and physical mediums. Inspired by the visuals meticulously captured by telescopes and space-faring instruments, Anadol reflects on a profound notion: that telescopes serve as the visual chroniclers of journeys beyond human reach. This idea led him and his team to pose a provocative question—could these instruments, which amass vast quantities of imagery, themselves “dream” of the universe they observe?

Anadol’s artistic philosophy is deeply rooted in his exploration of artificial intelligence as a creative collaborator. Reflecting on his innovative practice, he notes:

A centerpiece of the collection, Machine Hallucinations – Space | Chapter II: Mars (Generative AI Data Painting), presents a sublime meditation on the relationship between artificial intelligence, technology, and space exploration. By processing millions of images taken by the MRO telescope, Anadol creates a hallucinatory vision of Mars as seen through the "mind" of machine intelligence.

Anadol has received numerous awards, including the Lorenzo il Magnifico Lifetime Achievement Award for New Media Art, Microsoft Research’s Best Vision Award, and Google’s Artist and Machine Intelligence Residency Award. His work has been featured globally at prestigious venues such as the Venice Architecture Biennale, MoMA, Centre Pompidou, and Art Basel, among others.

In 2023, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) added Anadol’s “Unsupervised - Machine Hallucinations”, this was the museum's inaugural inclusion of a tokenized artwork in its permanent collection. Using a similar technique to Machine Hallucinations: Mars (Infinite AI Data Painting), this three-part work uses artificial intelligence to re-interpret and re-imagine the entire collection of MoMA Anadol employed a sophisticated machine-learning model to interpret public data from MoMA’s collection, crafting a distinctive piece infused with light, movement, sound, and external climatic elements. This is all displayed on a vast media wall, elevating the vibrant visual and auditory experience.

Anadol’s groundbreaking fusion of AI, art, and architecture continues to redefine digital creativity, fostering unique visual experiences and eroding assumptions about the esoteric nature of AI. By blending cutting-edge technology with humanistic focus, his work represents a transformative force in the history of media art.