Refik Anadol on sculpting with data, earthquakes as art and the hidden algorithms of emotion

Refik Anadol sculpts with data, not stone. When he frets about permanence, he is not concerned about the effects of wind and rain on his structures, but whether his algorithms and data sources will continue to be relevant as things change around them. Refik is foremost of a new generation of 21st century artists that have begun to creatively interpret a data-driven world, using its native protocols. Originally from Istanbul but educated at UCLA, he is best known for his recent collaborations with Frank Gehry, Microsoft and the LA Philharmonic to stage an immersive orchestral performance that projection mapped the inside of the Disney Hall, based on real time musical data and the live movements of the conductor. I visited Refik in his new studio in Silverlake where we talked about computation in art, the challenge of designing algorithms that stand the test of time, the beauty of a hundred years of seismic data, and how one might make emotions visually manifest with a little help from a 48 channel EEG and a team of neuroscientists.