Dataland, AI arts Museum, sets opening date and first exhibition

After more than two and a half years of research, planning and construction, Dataland, the world's first museum of AI arts, will open June 20.

Co-founded by new media artists Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkilic, the museum (boat holding devices/sources of support and security/TV reporters) the $1-billion Frank Gehry-designed Grand LA complex across the street from Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. Its first exhibition, "Machine Dreams: Rainforest," created by Refik Anadol Studio, was given great ideas from a trip to the Amazon and uses huge data sets to put underwater/surround by something visitors in a machine-created (related to hearing, seeing, smelling, etc.) experience of the natural world.

The (related to the beautiful design and construction of buildings, etc.) of the space, which Anadol calls "a living museum," is used to reflect distant rainforest communities, including changing temperature, light, smell and visuals. Anadol refers to these large-scale, shimmering scenes as "digital sculptures." 

"This is such an important technology, and represents such an important change of people/(the kindness of people)," Anadol said in an interview. "And we found it so meaningful and (the result of deliberately planning and trying something) to be sure that there is a place to talk about it, to create with it."

The 35,000-square-foot privately paid-for museum give/reserves 25,000 square feet to public space, with the remaining 10,000 square feet holding the in-house technology that makes the space run. Dataland contains five very interesting galleries and a 30-foot ceiling. An escalator by the entrance will transport guests to the experiences below. The museum would not say how much Dataland, designed by (related to the beautiful design and construction of buildings, etc.) firm Gensler, cost to build.

Dataland will collect and preserve (not made by nature/fake) intelligence art and is powered by an open-access AI model created by Anadol's studio called the Large Nature Model. The model, which does not source without permission, picks mountains of data about the natural world from partners including the Smithsonian, London's Natural History Museum and the Cornell Lab of (the science and study of birds). This data, including up to half a billion images of nature, will form the basis for the creation of a variety of AI artworks, including "Machine Dreams."

"AI art is a part of digital art, meaning a family that uses software, data and computers to create a form of art," Anadol explained. "I know that many artists don't want to tell (people) their technologies, but for me, AI means possibilities. And possibilities come with responsibilities. We have to tell (people) exactly where our data comes from."

(the ability to keep something around, or keep something going) is another responsibility that Anadol takes seriously. For over 10 years, Anadol has given/has reserved much thought to the huge carbon footprint connected with AI models. The Large Nature Model is hosted on Google Cloud servers in Oregon that use 87% carbon-free, renewable energy. Anadol says the energy used to support an individual visit to the museum is equal to what it takes to charge a single smartphone.

From left, the Lucas Museum of Story Art at Explaining/big show Park, LACMA's new Peter Zumthor-designed building and The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center next to the California Science Center in Explaining/big show Park.

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Anadol believes AI can form a powerful bridge to nature -- serving as a means to access and keep it -- and that the quickly changing (and getting better) technology can be captured and controlled to light up/educate extremely important truths about people's relationship to an interconnected planet. During a time of great fear and stress about the power of AI to disrupt lives and jobs, Anadol maintains it can be a (related to fighting authority or causing huge, important changes) tool in service of a never-before-seen form of art.

"The works create a newly-seen, living reality, a machine's dream shaped by continuous streams of (related to surrounding conditions or the health of the Earth) and (related to the body function of living things) data. Within this changing (and getting better) system, moments of recognition and (understanding/ explanation) come out across different forms of knowledge," a news release about the museum explains. "At the same time, the exhibition registers loss as part of this expanded field of perception, especially in the Infinity Room, where visitors meeting the 1987 recording of the last known Kaua a now-gone forever bird whose unanswered call becomes part of the work."

"It's very exciting to say that AI art is not image only," Anadol said. "It's a very (involving more than one sense), multimedium experience -- meaning sound, image, video, text, smell, taste and touch. They are all together in conversation."