Refik Anadol is an award-winning media artist, director, and pioneer in the aesthetics of machine intelligence and in digital art collectibles. Refik “paints” with data to create mesmerizing, large-scale digital artworks that address what it means to be a human in the age of AI, with his work occupying the intersection of art, science, and technology.
Across his 3D data sculptures and paintings, live audio/visual performances, and immersive installations, the artist takes what was once invisible to the human eye, and renders it visible. Whether that consists of buildings coming to life and disappearing into infinity, or breathtaking aesthetics that take shape from large swaths of data — Refik’s immersive environments offer a new perspective on the world, with a distinct aesthetic technique emerging out of machine intelligence.
Data emerges as a persistent theme across Refik’s work. He has trained a machine model to go through MoMA’s 200 year art collection and reimagine the history of modern art. He created a “data sculpture” of an alternative reality of nature, using 200 million online photos of Earth for the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia. Refik also used 70 terabytes of MRI brain scans to create an immersive installation for the Venice Architecture Biennale inspired by the human mind, and for an artwork at Kraftwerk Berlin, visitors provided real time data for AI generation — visible in the form of a hallucinogenic LED screen painting.
The Turkish-born, LA-based artist’s work has been shown across the world at public landmarks, major art museums and festivals. “What are the challenges and possibilities that computing has imposed on humanity?” Refik’s work asks. He examines how our ideas of time and space are changing, as machines increasingly dominate our lives.
GUARDIANS OF THE FOREST
The Yawanawá communities of Aldeia Sagrada and Nova Esperança, indigenous to the Brazilian Amazon, are Refik Anadol’s creative collaborators on his exclusive artwork and the accompanying digital art collectible release, commissioned by Impact One for Scorpios.
Proceeds from sale of the artworks will go directly to the community. The funds will be used by the Yawanawá chiefs Nixiwaka, Putanny and Isku Kua, to support long-term initiatives for the protection of the Yawanawá lands and cultural heritage.
With a population of over 1200, the Yawanawá people live in villages nestled along the banks of the Gregório river in the Brazilian state of Acre, where they are guardians of thousands of acres of rainforest. The Yawanawá culture holds a deep connection to the natural world through the community’s ancestral wisdom, plant medicine and environmental stewardship.
The Yawanawá people's history is believed to go back millenia, with the first contact made with the western world only a little over a century ago. Despite the influence of external forces and continuous challenges from outsiders, the Yawanawá have managed to maintain their traditional way of life and preserve their culture.
