Deconstructing AI Art masterpieces: Create Art like Refik Anadol

What if you were asked to create art like Refik Anadol? Or to produce some "AI art"?

In case you haven't heard of him, go directly to the vimeo channel of Refik Anadol and enjoy the moment of discovery!

When I first saw his pieces (only virtually so far), I was flashed. I really love that look of organic movement and abstract shapes. And one question that came to my mind was… how on earth was it done? As I did some research about him a little while ago, but recently rediscovered my love for his work, I wanted to share my findings about him and what could be called AI art.

For me, art reflects humanity’s capacity for imagination. And if I push my compass to the edge of imagination, I find myself well connected with the machines, with the archives, with knowledge, and the collective memories of humanity.

Refik Anadol in an interview with MoMA in 2021

To get an idea who Refik Anadol is and what AI in the context of art is, I recommend watching the ted talk with him.

Painting with data

Melting Memories or Machine hallucinations are examples of his stunning artworks collection. Many of his artworks take the perspective of the computer: what does it look like if a computer is dreaming?

In a world surrounded by data, Refik Anadol uses this data and presents it in a visually stunning representation. These data sets could include many terabytes.

To work with the data he uses machine learning (ML) to produce interactive AI projects. If you are up for Quantum AI by google, there’s also a project you could check out: Quantum memories. And here’s some insight from the data perspective on youtube.

In the past five years, we’ve trained more than 100 AI models, and used close to five petabytes of raw data.

Refik Anadol in an interview with MoMA from 2021

As I mentioned Refik Anadol works a lot with data. For the piece “Melting Memories”, he used EEG data to paint. In the description of the artwork you could find more details on how the masterpiece was realized. Refik describes the use of EEG data and some challenges converting it to vvvv. A live programming environment, everyone, who ever looked at interactive environments might have heard of. IIf you are searching for software that is native to mac, you could give touchdesigner a try. If you are more of a programmer, you could also look at openframeworks.

Besides data, it seems Refik Anadol likes giant canvasses for his art. So he also likes facades to transform architectural spaces. The illumination of Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall is an iconic example. Titled WDCH Dreams, he makes use of projection mapping to illuminate the building.
Google Arts & Culture has an interesting page about Refik Anadol, explaining more facets of the piece.

To get the projection right, you could see that he had a model of the building in his office.

In my practice, I’m not just creating a bunch of shiny pixels. I’m doing my very best to bring depth to surface by understanding exactly why technology may be purposeful and impactful for my imagination. Not because it’s the hype, or because it’s new, or because it is popular.

Refik Anadol in an interview in Harpers Bazaar Arabia

What are the takeaways from AI Art?

It is truly fascinating to see how Refiks Anadols' work circles around our current digital, AI-driven and real landscape. Of course, the work does not address every aspect that is relevant at the moment. This includes environmental aspects, as I mentioned in my article Improving the world as a designer. However, his art makes future aspects of AI tangible in a visually appealing way. Everything I expect from art.

There’s an interesting discussion in MoMA magazine on “Modern Dream: How Refik Anadol Is Using Machine Learning and NFTs to Interpret MoMA’s Collection”. The article describes Refik's Journey to get into his machine hallucination series. It is an excellent source of inspiration, as well as an overview of the status quo of AI-art and its beautiful perspectives. In terms of the ever emerging NFT landscape maybe even an option to get into AI-art yourself. If your alarm signals are ringing, when i mention NFT, be assured, there are eco-friendly NFTs, too.

By the way, if you want to dive deeper into equipment, I guess one piece I forgot about is the projector he is using. And if you want to get a comprehensive overview of his most famous pieces and the money he earned, you can find more on artnsketch. Unfortunately I didn't find details on how he creates the depth in his works. However, I am pretty sure it's the combination of architecture and the illusion of the depth, that creates the magic you might know from playing with generative art.

If you want to dive into the world of generative art, I would recommend getting started with p5JS or processing, but also touchdesigner offers awesome tutorials to get started. Another way to learn is following Daniel Shiffman, aka the coding train on youtube. No matter if generative programming or getting started with Machine Learning (ML). Watching him is already a classic. There's also an impressive collection of AI artists, tools and resources at aiartists.org.

Those principles being applied within AI-artworks are, in my opinion, relevant to design disciplines as well. Interacting in 3D space and mapping visually engaging worlds in a metaverse or other VR experience is challenging and requires more thought, as the world of AI is already showing. Maybe Refik offers such a world for us in one of his latest projects: dataland.

For now my final summary is, thank you, Refik Anadol, for inspiring creative visual discoveries and an inspiring combination of contemporary technologies to provide beauty.

❤️ @refikanadol

Other articles and sources:

1. AI Artists
2. Some resources I collected in my article "Generative Art – how to get started with AI Art"
3. My other writings often focus on how AI is being used in Design, Art, and society in general and I often share some thoughts.
4. AI Art: How artists are using and confronting machine learning | HOW TO SEE LIKE A MACHINE – great video from MoMA with some more description of Refik's work
5. Ted Talk from Refik Anadol: "How AI art could enhance humanity's collective memory"

Recommended tutorials to get started:

1. Refik Anadol Particles in TouchDesigner, Part One - Tutorial
2. Refik Anadol Particles in TouchDesigner, Part Two - Tutorial
3. Some more links to tutorials and how to get started with AI Art you will find in my article Generative Art – how to get started with AI Art