Refik Anadol’s Dataland Leaves Contemporary Art in the Dust
In an Artnet News review, Refik Anadol’s Dataland is described as an A.I.-focused, immersive “museum” that resembles large-scale experiential attractions more than traditional institutions like the Broad or MoCA. Its inaugural exhibition, “Machine Dreams: Rainforest,” uses Anadol’s “Large Nature Model” to generate shifting environments that begin with rainforest motifs and expand into a broader “machine dream” aesthetic. Visitors are invited to wear a neck brace and bracelet that monitor biometric data to influence aspects of the visuals, with the museum not recommending the monitoring equipment for children under seven. The critic frames Dataland as a major escalation from Anadol’s earlier projects, referencing Jerry Saltz’s 2023 remark that Anadol’s MoMA installation Unsupervised was “just a fancy lava lamp.”
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This story was covered in Safe Markets, Culture Wars, and Queer Reframing