How Refik Anadol Is Writing the Next Chapter of Art History

Since AI broke into public consciousness with ChatGPT's launch in November 2022—just two years ago—the race for artificial general intelligence, or AGI, has dominated headlines as a climactic drama with humanity's fate in the balance. Will creating a digital god redeem us, or will it destroy us? Is it even possible? ​Now, go down a few rungs on the ladder of existentiality, and a parallel race is underway in the art world that’s freighted with its own sublime promise and high-stakes quandaries. I’m talking about the effort to create great AI art—or GAIA, if an acronym is useful—and there is likely no more visible, accomplished, or powerfully backed paladin of this quest than the artist Refik Anadol.​Having spent years perfecting an approach to alchemizing large datasets into jaw-dropping generative artworks, Anadol is a rare figure who can move with equal ease through the art and tech sectors’ corridors of power, in part because his work can offer the impression of looking upon the face of AI itself. He’s even become a spokesperson of sorts, recently seen at Meta Connect trying on a prototype of their Orion AR glasses and declaring, “This can be a whole new world.”​And he’s putting his fingerprint on the museum landscape, too. When his masterwork Unsupervised went on view in MoMA in 2022, its massive popular success helped spark an internal pivot at the institution toward digital art. Last month, he announced that Refik Anadol Studio will be unveiling a museum of its own next year. Called DATALAND and sited in a new Frank Gehry building in downtown LA, it promises to be the world’s first “museum powered by generative AI and ethical tech.”