Announced as the first museum dedicated to art generated by artificial intelligence, DATALAND will open in Los Angeles in 2025. More good news: artist Refik Anadol will be in charge of its artistic direction.
Designed by architect Frank Gehry, DATALAND is intended to be a sanctuary. An unprecedented sanctuary that won’t just exhibit works of art; it promises total immersion, where visitors become spectators as much as actors, becoming part of a mutual dance between man and machine. “Where human imagination meets the creative potential of machines”, proclaims the press release for this unprecedented project. The museum is indeed the fruit of a far-reaching ambition, defying the boundaries of imagination: an algorithmic symphony in which each work of art is constantly transformed by artificial intelligences trained to read visitors’ emotions, and to offer interpretations in real time. As for the public, they find themselves caught up in an infinite flow of sound and images, a kind of digital palimpsest in perpetual rewriting. What a promise!
Thinking up new artworks
As the museum’s teams, including Refik Anadol, who has been appointed Artistic Director, emphasize, DATALAND does not seek to appease. It questions, destabilizes and sometimes even frightens. Here, the boundaries between the real and the virtual are blurred: sculptures are born of the logical thinking of neural networks, paintings are the results of probabilistic equations, performances are orchestrated by autonomous agents. Some of the works already announced resonate as challenges to our conception of art. For example, Genesis V2.0, an immersive installation created by an AI that has assimilated data from thousands of classical paintings, proposes a new Adam and Eve. No flesh here, but composite representations with infinite, fluctuating features. Each step in the room alters their appearance, reminding us that, in this space, everything is in the process of becoming.
Beyond the traditional museum experience
Debates about the nature of this art are already flaring up. While public opinion oscillates between amazement and discomfort, DATALAND raises many questions: is it art if the human being has no final control? Can we feel emotion when faced with a creation whose author never existed? The best way to answer these questions is to exhibit a wide range of works and let them do the talking.
DATALAND goes far beyond the classic museum: it’s a window onto a future where AI no longer simply assists human creativity, but transcends it, provokes it, reinvents it. So, what can we expect from this revolutionary museum? Dazzlement, of course, but also a profound rethinking. The promise of an introspective journey, where each visitor is expected to come face to face with his or her own perception of art and the place of technology in our lives. Is this just a phrase from a marketing firm’s top brass? See you in Los Angeles in 2025 to find out for yourself!
