Machine Hallucinations – Coral Dreams
In collaboration with co-founder Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile and the Aorist team, artist Refik Anadol presented "Machine Hallucinations – Coral Dreams" during Miami Art Week 2021.
Anadol's installation, "Machine Hallucinations: Coral," unfolds from the ongoing research at Refik Anadol Studio, exploring data aesthetics based on collective visual memories of nature. This site-specific data sculpture, designed for Art Basel Miami 2021 in collaboration with Aorist Art and Faena Hotel Miami Beach, graced Miami Beach. Anadol and his team meticulously collected 35,742,772 images of coral from publicly available social media platforms, processing them with machine learning classification models.
As the machine-mind autonomously establishes connections between data points and begins to "hallucinate" alternative coral shapes and colors, the data universe expands into a latent cosmos. Fluid dynamics, inspired by this hallucination, becomes the driving force behind Anadol's artistic creativity. Bridging the digital ecosystem of data with a landscape hosting various living ecosystems, the artwork emphasizes themes of preservation and sustainability. Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic Sebastian Smee of The Washington Post commented,
“I loved it… Anadol’s work — visually stunning, intelligent, mesmerizing — amazed and moved me.”
In collaboration with co-founder Rodriguez-Fraile and the Aorist team, Anadol's work pushes artistic boundaries by employing advanced machine learning. The exhibit dynamically generates visual landscapes, creating a responsive, living canvas that engages viewers in a dialogue with the artwork.
"Machine Hallucinations – Coral Dreams" marks a historical turning point for digital art. Anadol's innovative use of artificial intelligence and the collaborative effort with Aorist represents a paradigm shift in the intersection of technology and artistic expression. The exhibition challenges traditional artistic norms and solidifies the digital medium's significance in the contemporary art landscape.
Debuting at Miami Art Week, the exhibit, led by Anadol in collaboration with co-founder Rodriguez-Fraile and the Aorist team, attracted attention for its exploration of technology in art against the vibrant backdrop of the cultural event.
"Machine Hallucinations – Coral Dreams" is a collaborative exploration of art and technology, rooted in Anadol's ongoing AI research of data aesthetics. The installation stands as a testament to the fusion of collective visual memories with machine intelligence, unfolding unrecognized layers of external realities, memories, and dreams since 2016.
Deep gratitude for the generous support from Aorist, Faena Art, the City of Miami, and their NFT Collectors.
Machine Hallucinations is an-going AI research of data aesthetics at the RAS Lab based on collective visual memories of nature. Since 2016, Anadol and his team have been pioneering custom algorithms to train machine intelligence in processing these vast datasets and unfolding unrecognized layers of our external realities, memories and dreams.
Physical Activation
Machine Hallucinations: Coral Dreams — AI Data Sculpture
Machine Hallucinations: Coral Dreams is a 40 ft x 40 ft AI data sculpture based on curated 1,742,772 images of coral/reef found on publicly available image databases. With this work, Anadol hopes to bring attention to an urgent environmental problem: the impact of climate change on coral die-offs. A masterfully curated multi-channel experience on Miami Beach, Machine Hallucinations: Coral invites the audience to be immersed in a virtual underwater space while physically surrounded by AI-generated water and sea creatures.
Machine Hallucinations is an-going AI research of data aesthetics at the RAS Lab based on collective visual memories of nature. Since 2016, Anadol and his team have been pioneering custom algorithms to train machine intelligence in processing these vast datasets and unfolding unrecognized layers of our external realities, memories and dreams.
