As someone who has been captivated by the intersection of art and technology for many years, I find myself utterly enthralled by the developments unfolding in this dynamic field. The rise of AI-generated art and the integration of NFTs have truly revolutionized our understanding of what art can be and how it can impact us.
Refik Anadol Studio, founded by Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkiliç in 2025, is set to debut DATALAND – an immersive museum showcasing AI art and NFTs – at The Grand LA. This pioneering institution will open its primary location within the Frank Gehry-designed urban center in downtown Los Angeles.
DATALAND offers innovative, AI-driven art encounters that pioneer a unique approach to artistic expression in the dawning digital era, enhancing immersion through AI-generated scents in its galleries. In an exclusive conversation with me, renowned AI artist Refik Anadol shared:
Although we haven’t disclosed specifics about DATALAND’s artistic programming, it promises a variety of opportunities to showcase and share AI-generated artwork both in person and online. This way, those who can’t travel to LA can still appreciate the AI art creations. The art pieces will be available as NFTs, which can be purchased using an Ethereum-based platform and other eco-friendly blockchains. This offers a unique blend of art and culture experiences for everyone.
Refik Anadol Studio unveiled DATALAND during Climate Week NYC, a statewide event happening concurrently with the United Nations General Assembly meeting where global leaders convene to tackle pressing global issues. DATALAND’s debut exhibitions will utilize the Large Nature Model, an AI model built entirely from nature data, to create unique, immersive digital artwork powered by artificial intelligence. The studio first showcased these installations at the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and later at the United Nations in New York during the 2024 UNGA to foster environmental consciousness. As UN Under-Secretary-General Melissa Fleming agreed:
Refik Anadol’s artwork embodies the stunning yet delicate nature of our environment. It serves as a powerful message to global leaders, urging them to utilize technology (AI art and NFTs) alongside human creativity and determination, to stimulate action aimed at preserving our Earth before it’s irrevocably damaged.
The renowned studio, known for its accolades, has been hired by top tech firms, pioneering scientists, and innovative visionaries to create projects that have been showcased in over 70 cities across six continents, reaching millions of eager fans. These exhibitions took place at venues such as the United Nations Climate Change Conferences, MoMA, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Serpentine Galleries, National Gallery of Victoria, Venice Architecture Biennale, Hammer Museum, Arken Museum, Casa Batlló, Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Daejeon Museum of Art, and Istanbul Modern Museum. However, Refik Anadol Studio, as described by Refik himself, selected Los Angeles as the ideal city to debut DATALAND, a visionary, groundbreaking museum that aligns with the fields I have devoted my career to: art, science, technology, and AI research. He further stated:
Since Los Angeles has always been a city that’s forward-thinking when it comes to art, music, film, architecture, and other aspects, establishing DATALAND here seems fitting. By setting up a permanent location where we can redefine what a museum is, by merging human creativity with artificial intelligence and cutting-edge technologies, I’m realizing one of my long-held dreams. The fact that this will happen in a building designed by one of my idols, Frank Gehry, feels almost surreal.
DATALAND intends to leverage millions of photographs and various records from our global partners such as the Smithsonian and London’s Natural History Museum, to construct its exhibits. Furthermore, Refik mentioned that we currently have three substantial collaborations with museums underway, and we are excited about expanding these partnerships on a global scale.
History of AI art, NFTs, and museums
Christiane Paul, the digital art curator at Whitney Museum, expressed excitement about delving deeper into DATALAND, and she shared insights on AI Art History during the pioneering symposium titled “Debates in AI” hosted by Rhode Island School of Design from April 11-12, 2024. She emphasized that AI art represents an intriguing narrative where technology and creativity intertwine, and it persistently innovates, exploring new frontiers at the intersection of technology and artistic expression.
Christiane Paul, curator of Digital Art at Whitney Museum, debates in AI art history
The foundation of AI art can be found in experiments with computer-generated artwork from the 1950s to the 1970s, where artists and computer scientists teamed up to produce visual and abstract pieces using early computer programs. One significant example from this period is the evolution of Harold Cohen’s AARON, the first artificial intelligence program developed to create drawings and paintings, showcased at the Whitney Museum by Christiane Paul and David Lisbon. AARON made its debut in 1972 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The evolution of algorithms from the 1980s through the 2000s paved the way for increasingly intricate and diverse artistic expressions, leading AI-generated art to be acknowledged within scholarly and creative communities.
In 2002, the city of Los Angeles provided a base for the Gray Area Foundation, an organization dedicated to fostering, maintaining, and utilizing interdisciplinary collaboration, with a focus on blending art, technology, science, AI, and humanities to shape a more just and sustainable future. However, in 2005, this foundation relocated its headquarters to San Francisco.
In the 2010s, I witnessed a transformative era as deep learning made its grand entrance. With innovations like generative adversarial networks and other machine learning techniques, we saw the birth of astonishingly intricate and lifelike artworks. This AI-generated art found its way into galleries, museums, and even auction houses in NFT format, stirring debates on the very essence of creativity and authorship.
In 2014, digital artist Kevin McCoy issued the first-ever art NFT.
Four years ago, in 2018, Christie’s auction house pioneered the sale of AI-created artwork, marking a historic first for any auction house. Additionally, they hosted their inaugural Art + Tech Summit, focusing on blockchain technology that year. By June 2019, the summit’s second installment delved into artificial intelligence and art. Since then, blockchain, NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), and AI have emerged as significant trends in the art world, creating an unexpected intersection. Leading this digital shift is Christiane Paul, who spearheaded the Whitney Museum’s collection of NFTs, starting from 2018.
In the 2020s, there’s been a significant rise in the use of AI for creating artwork among the general populace, a development that has come to be known as mainstream adoption. This period has sparked discussions around NFTs, their market fluctuations, copyright issues, the influence on conventional artists, and the moral dilemmas associated with AI in the art world.
In Germany, the Intelligent Museum – an initiative for practical research and development, jointly conducted by ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe and the German Museum – received funding from the Digital Culture Programme of the German Federal Cultural Foundation in 2020. This project delves into innovative methods of museum interaction and engagement, aiming to integrate the museum with contemporary AI technologies. As a result, it serves as both an experiential and experimental space, fostering a social environment where art, science, technology, and public dialogue intersect. One prominent AI-generated NFT artist showcased at ZKM is Botto, developed in 2021 by a team of computer engineers and German artist Mario Klingemann. To date, Botto has produced over 75 NFTs that have earned more than $3 million in sales revenue.
In New York City, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is set to host its inaugural AI Art Show, titled “Unsupervised” by Refik Anadol, which will be curated by Michelle Kuo. This museum has recently received a substantial endowment from the William S. Paley Foundation, established to further MoMA’s objectives in digital media and technology, and to facilitate acquisitions of AI Art/NFTs. At the time, Henry Kissinger, who was Chairman of the William S. Paley Foundation, made a statement about this development.
My friend Bill Paley had a profound love for The Museum of Modern Art, and he was completely committed to its progress. This project aims to uphold his wishes and carry forward his vision for MoMA through the Foundation.
Despite exhibiting a cautious stance towards NFTs thus far, MoMA has only made limited engagements. Apart from providing data for algorithmically created works by artist Refik Anadol and announcing the acquisition of “Unsupervised” for its permanent collection in October 2023, the museum has not delved into other AI art or NFT initiatives.
In Singapore, the exhibition “Notes From the Ether,” curated by Deborah Lim from ArtScience Museum and guest curator Clara Che Wei Peh, was a captivating and relevant showcase of digital art that peered into the future. Featuring 20 artists including Memo Akten, Burak Arikan, Botto, Mitchell F Chan, DEAFBEEF Simon Denny, Harm van den Dorpel, Sarah Friend, Rimbawan Gerilya, Holly Herndon and Mathew Dryhurst, Tyler Hobbs and Dandelion Wistjo+kapi, Larva Labs, Jonas Lund, Ninaad Kothawade, Sarah Meyohas, Rhea Myers, Aaron Penne, Aluan Wang, Emily Xie, this exhibition showcased artworks created using the new technologies of non-fungible tokens and generative artificial intelligence, exploring the possibilities and limits of what art can be.
The future of museums AI art and NFTs
It’s clear that AI-generated art has been increasingly used over the past four decades, particularly in the last ten years following the advent of NFTs for art tokenization, as stated by the Academy of Animated Art. Vilas Dhar, President of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, elaborated on this trend.
Artificial Intelligence is not just an instrument for innovation; it’s a powerful influence that can alter our perspective of Earth, enabling us to rediscover the breathtaking beauty and delicate nature of our planet in ways previously unimaginable. Refik Anadol’s innovative vision allows us to harness technology [AI Art & NFTs] to stimulate our senses and foster a stronger emotional bond with our natural environment.
This year, numerous museums and approximately 100 immersive institutions globally are displaying or acquiring AI art and NFTs on a grand scale for their visitors to witness the fusion of human creativity and artificial intelligence. Institutions such as the Seattle NFT Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Mercer Labs, Museum of Art & Light, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Centre Pompidou, Tate Modern, PST Art: Art & Science Collide (held across over 60 shows in Southern California), and many more are participating in this trend.
Magda Shawon, a partner at Postmasters Gallery in New York City and collaborator with the pioneering NFT artist Kevin McCoy, has been marketing digital, AI-created art to institutions like MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Whitney Museum of American Art for more than two decades. She shares Vilas and Melissa’s views about Refik’s influential AI artwork.
Viewers find themselves captivated by Refik Anadol’s AI-based artwork and can’t seem to tear their eyes away. While his work undeniably makes an impression, it remains uncertain whether it will spark the growth of a vast AI generative art market, particularly in terms of NFT sales.
Digital art has been collected for as long as it has existed, but widespread adoption is still nascent. The tokenization of art via NFTs has helped the digital art world and the traditional art world integrate, leading to a burgeoning interest from museums, immersive institutions, collectors, auction houses, NFT markets, and galleries. The first NFT artist, Kevin McCoy, who created an art NFT back in 2014, is hopeful and supports Refik’s museum, AI art, and NFT initiative. He highlighted:
I’m delighted to hear about Anadol’s announcement of Dataland. Not only is he setting a remarkable example through his ‘ethical AI’ initiative, but also by his dedication to displaying and preserving AI and digital art, which aligns perfectly with the museum’s mission. In this context, the traceability offered by NFTs and blockchain records could prove pivotal. This could mark a crucial advancement in the increasing adoption of such technology.
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2024-10-06 13:13