Check Out Refik Anadol’s AI-Powered Light and Sound Projection on the Smithsonian’s Iconic ‘Castle’ Building
Artist Refik Anadol presented Smithsonian Dreams, an immersive AI-driven light and sound projection mapped onto the façade of the Smithsonian’s red sandstone Castle during a pause in a renovation that began in 2023. The projection ran for two hours starting at 9 PM on Friday and Saturday, July 17 and 18, and a Smithsonian spokesperson estimated about 20,000 visitors attended across both nights. Using a custom generative AI system and a UMAP (Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection) algorithm, Anadol drew on nearly two centuries of digitized Smithsonian materials, including manuscripts, photographs, artworks, scientific records, and specimens from across its museums, libraries, and research centers. The Castle, designed by James Renwick Jr. and opened in 1855 on the south side of the National Mall, served as the surface for the work, which Anadol described as exploring what might happen “if the Castle itself could learn from its collections” and “dream through them.”
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This story was covered in Museum Power Shifts and Restitution Manhunts