Archive Dreaming

Commissioned to work with Salt Research collections, artist Refik Anadol employed machine learning algorithms to search and sort relations among 1,700,000 documents. Interactions of the multidimensional data found in the archives are, in turn, translated into an immersive media installation. Archive Dreaming, which is presented as part of The Uses of Art: Final Exhibition, is user-driven; however, when idle, the installation “dreams” of unexpected correlations among documents.

Shortly after receiving the commission, Anadol was a resident artist for Google’s Artists and Machine Intelligence using supercomputers and cutting-edge developments in the field of machine intelligence in an environment that brings together artists and engineers. Developed during this residency, his intervention Archive Dreaming transforms the gallery space on floor -1 at Salt Galata into an all-encompassing environment that intertwines history with the contemporary, and challenges immutable concepts of the archive, while destabilizing archive-related questions with machine learning algorithms.

About Refik Anadol
Born in Istanbul in 1985, Refik Anadol is a media artist and director based in Los Angeles, US. Anadol works in the fields of site-specific public art through different means, including parametric data sculptures and live audio/visual performances with immersive installations; his works particularly explore the space among digital and physical entities by creating a hybrid relationship between architecture and media arts. He holds MFA degrees in Design Media Arts from UCLA, and in Visual Communication Design from Istanbul Bilgi University. Anadol is the recipient of a number of awards, including Microsoft Research’s Best Vision Award, German Design Award, UCLA Art+Architecture Moss Award, University of California Institute for Research in the Arts Award, SEGD Global Design Award, and Google’s Art and Machine Intelligence Artist Residency Award. Recent site-specific audio/visual performances took place at Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), International Digital Arts Biennial Montreal, and Ars Electronica Festival (Linz).

This project is part of the five-year program The Uses of Art - The Legacy of 1848 and 1989, organized by L'Internationale.

Tags:

Related Content: