September 19, 2023

21st Arab Media Forum to display Refik Anadol’s groundbreaking AI artwork

The AI artwork of renowned new media artist Refik Anadol will be exhibited at the 21st Arab Media Forum, bringing an aesthetic dimension to the event’s key focuses: the sustainability agenda and the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in reshaping the media.

Dubai will be the cynosure of the media world yet again as leading players of the industry converge on the city for the Forum, which this year features the theme ‘The Future of Arab Media’. Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, AMF 2023 will provide a platform for discovering new insights on accelerating the development of the region’s media sector. Organised by the Dubai Press Club, this year’s AMF will be held on 26 and 27 September 2023.

Hessa Al Matrooshi, Member of the AMF Organising Committee, said: “Each year, the Arab Media Forum serves to encapsulate the direction the world of media is headed in while anticipating new frontiers and highlighting key challenges. Any conversation about the future of media these days invariably hovers around the topic of Artificial Intelligence and how industry professionals need to reckon with its sweeping impact. We are delighted to spotlight exceptional talents like Refik Anadol, who push the boundaries of what’s possible, offering us a glimpse into the future of media.”

Anadol's artwork is at the cutting edge of modern art, weaving together vast amounts of data from diverse domains like nature, history, human activity and classical art. He translates this information into captivating abstract visuals, offering viewers an entryway into an entirely new dimension of spatial design. Anadol’s paintings and sculptures capture the very essence of new media tech, conjuring immersive experiences that throw open the door to a whole new dimension of spatial design.

In the context of sustainability, the data-driven nature of Anadol’s artwork encourages viewers to reflect on the interconnectedness of our world—how natural phenomena and human actions and events are all part of a larger system. By drawing upon vast arrays of data drawn from nature, Anadol's art serves as a visual metaphor for the complexity and fragility of the planet's ecosystems.

Anadol’s work that will be exhibited at AMF is titled ‘Machine Hallucinations — Nature Dreams’. The AI artwork peers intently into data aesthetics based on the collective visual memories of humanity.

‘Machine Hallucinations — Nature Dreams’ utilises over 300 million publicly available photographs of nature collected between 2018- 2021 at Refik Anadol Studio. Combined, this represents the largest raw dataset of nature ever gathered for an artwork, which was then used to train an algorithm. The resulting AI Data Painting incorporates pigments, shapes and patterns that are associated with nature, but only exist in the mind of a machine as dreams. Each variation features a stunning visual interpretation, together forming a multi- faceted reflection of the nuanced relationship between technology, humanity, and culture.

An architectural exhibition of synesthetic reality experiments based on algorithms developed by artificial intelligence and inspired by fluid dynamics, Nature Dreams turns datasets into latent multi-sensory experiences to commemorate the beauty of the earth. Anadol’s body of work stirs us to reimagine our engagement with the physical world, its temporal and spatial dimensions, and opens us up to the untapped creative potential of machines.

With the assistance of the Google AI Quantum team, Anadol was granted access to one of the world’s foremost quantum computing research projects, allowing him to merge AI-induced latent space with a quantum hyperspace, and thus speculate an alternative reality through the lens of nature aesthetics.

The 2023 edition of AMF aims to foster an understanding of how the media influences critical areas that are shaping the world's future. A primary highlight of the event is exploring AI solutions to address both regional and global challenges.