ABSTRACT
Refik Anadol Studio (RAS) in Los Angeles has been experimenting with multisensory forms of AI-based artmaking, combining machine learning with the studio’s decade-long vision of embedding new media arts in architecture. The Studio’s body of work takes publicly available data sets that represent human experiences in various ways, including institutional archives of the world’s leading cultural institutions, such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic or the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Making architectural spaces and buildings “dream” by using the capacities of AI to aid human imagination, Anadol’s Los Angeles-based Studio (RAS) comprises an interdisciplinary team from diverse professional backgrounds. In 2018, the Studio collaborated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Walt Disney Concert Hall (WDCH) Dreams, a live audio-visual performance projected on the façade of Frank Gehry’s iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall in celebration of the orchestra’s centennial. By taking WDCH Dreams as a case study, this article explores how RAS explores data aesthetics through collaborations with AI and creates immersive artworks that evoke multiple senses at the intersection of technology, architecture, performance, and machine learning.
