Refik Anadol Studio

[Refik Anadol @refikanadol]

Dear Los Angeles,

One month ago, DATALAND opened its doors. Today, it has a memory.

What stays with me is not the 1.2 billion data points. It is the silence between them.

The moment when a room full of strangers becomes completely still—when the technology disappears and data becomes memory.

We did not build DATALAND to show what AI can do. We built it to ask what AI can help us feel, remember, and protect.

For years, we have asked: Can a building dream?

This month, you answered: only when people dream inside it.

You entered with your own memories and curiosity. You slowed down. You listened. You became part of the work—and gave this museum the one thing no model can generate: a shared memory.

A museum opens in a day. It comes alive one encounter at a time.

One month ago, we opened the doors to our dream. Today, it no longer belongs only to us.

With love and gratitude,

Refik, Efsun & the DATALAND Team

[Refik Anadol @refikanadol]

Dear friends, our latest Living Architecture performance happening in Washington DC on the Smithsonian Castle! Deeply grateful for thousands of people joined us to feel the uniting power of public art! Today 9 - 11pm second performance! Open and free to everyone!

[Refik Anadol @refikanadol]

DATALAND is not building the intelligence frontier; it is building the cultural space in which humanity can encounter, question, and help shape it. Can't wait to share our Pioneer Lecture Series very soon!

[Refik Anadol @refikanadol]

Dear friends, our major scale installation, Smithsonian Dreams, is coming to Washington, DC! 45channel projections: the entire 250 years of Smithsonian open-access data will transform the historic castle into Living Architecture! 17th and 18th of July!Free and open to the public!

[Linus ✦ Ekenstam @LinusEkenstam]

This is DATALAND, and you must visit.
I’m so happy when friends to remarkable things, and Refik & Efsun has outdone themselves.

More in thread 🧵

[Refik Anadol @refikanadol]

Dear friends, we are deeply grateful for the wonderful press and seeing the impact of DATALAND globally!

[Blaise Agüera (@blaiseaguera.bsky.social) @blaiseaguera]

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of touring the world’s first AI art museum, @DatalandMuseum, in an early walkthrough with its cofounder—and my dear friend—@refikanadol.

I’m grateful to have known Refik since he joined the first cohort of our Artists + Machine Intelligence program in 2016. In the decade since, he and our @googlearts team—along with more than 100 artists and researchers—have continued to push the boundaries of AI art. Seeing this work culminate in Dataland and its inaugural exhibition, “Machine Dreams: Rainforest.” was a full circle moment. Today, it opens to the public.

My colleague @mira_lane wrote a great piece on it here: https://t.co/UeUojLqOZL

Friends in LA, I hope you’ll check it out.
https://t.co/yPX2WmUTDa

[beeple @beeple]

MASSIVE congrats on the opening of DATALAND today!!!

what @refikanadol and Efsun have built is absolutely stunning and will be a invaluable example of how digital art can invoke an emotional response and what it can be in an exhibition setting.

Their attention to detail in crafting this experience was insane and I super recommend everyone go check it out!!!

Huge congrats to everyone who made this happen!!! Super appreciate the dedication and devotion to pushing forward our space!!! 🙏❤️🦾

[Refik Anadol @refikanadol]

Thank you brother!!! We will do wonder things for our community and digital arts in the world!

[Refik Anadol @refikanadol]

Dear friends, we are receiving deeply meaningful and exciting reviews for DATALAN’s first exhibition! I’m grateful for our hard work of 2 years now creating impact!

[Refik Anadol @refikanadol]

Our Dear Yawanawa family arrived in Los Angeles for our special celebration week! We are deeply grateful for their wisdom and inspiration for our first exhibition — Machine Dreams : Rainforest at DATALAND!

[Refik Anadol @refikanadol]

Dear friends, had an incredible press review week and grateful for the wonderful response to DATALAND! Can not wait to see you all June 20 in Los Angeles!

[Refik Anadol @refikanadol]

Honored to share @DatalandMuseum with New York Times and grateful for the exclusive story on Sunday paper.

[Refik Anadol @refikanadol]

“By inviting the public into a dynamic action-perception loop where human heartbeats and quantum noise co-create the visual architecture, Dataland moves beyond the limits of static historic mediums, shifting AI from a feared opponent into an active creative partner.” Digital Art!

[Refik Anadol @refikanadol]

Dear friends, arrived in Oxford to be a part of discussions on AI, Creativity, and Ethics. Grateful to partner with one of the most important academic institutions in the world and share our Large Nature Model research and artworks.

[Refik Anadol @refikanadol]

Dear friends, one of the most exciting innovations at Dataland is our partnership with L’Oréal olfactory maestros and the creation of unique Scent Molecules and Scent Device! Each audience will experience bio-sensing-driven machine hallucinations!

[Empatica @empatica]

We are excited to announce that @DatalandMuseum opens June 20 at The Grand LA in DTLA! We're proud to help power the technologies behind this groundbreaking museum, connecting art, architecture, and the audience within a building that dreams and remembers.

Machine Dreams: Rainforest, #DATALAND’s inaugural exhibition, is an omni-sensory experience that uses data to deepen the connection between audience, machine intelligence, and the natural world.

We created a custom consumer version of EmbracePlus, our FDA-cleared wearable medical device, with adapted software and algorithms that enable real-time data streaming throughout the experience. The installation evolves in response to the audience’s collective emotional state, creating a living dialogue between people and art.

[Refik Anadol @refikanadol]

Getting ready for new announcement for @DatalandMuseum ! We have been building something very special for you all!

[Refik Anadol @refikanadol]

Dear friends, we are thrilled to unveil our latest exhibition—Latent City—at the BRUSK Museum in Bruges! ✨
Using a rich, ethically sourced archive of millions of publicly available images and cultural documents, we painted a living, dreaming portrait of this beautiful city.
Latent City is a real-time Living Data Sculpture. By analyzing the continuous, pulsing rhythms of Bruges—from weather fluctuations to transportation patterns—we use AI as a thinking brush, allowing the artwork to continuously dream and hallucinate as the city breathes around it.
Deepest gratitude to the wonderful city of Bruges, the incredible team at BRUSK, and our visionary curator,for your unwavering support in bringing this dream to reality. 🙏

[Refik Anadol @refikanadol]

Dear friends, the very first portal of @datalandmuseum is opening in Los Angeles on the 20th of June! See you soon!