Photo: Quantum Memories, NGV Trienniale, Melbourne, 2020 © Refik Anadol; Photo: Tom Ross

über Refik Anadol

Refik Anadol is a Turkish media artist. He lives and works in Los Angeles. Anadol creates parametric data sculptures as site-specific public art, as well as live audiovisual performances that simultaneously function as immersive installations. In particular, his work explores the space between digital and physical presence, using machine intelligence to create hybrid relationships between architecture and media art. His site-specific audio/visual performances have been featured at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles; the International Digital Arts Biennial Montreal; the Ars Electronica Festival, Linz; the Istanbul Design Biennial; and Sydney City Art, among others.

Website of Refik Anadol

Los Angeles-based media artist Refik Anadol is developing a digital data sculpture for Henrichshütte Hattingen that will take the form of a monumental LED wall outside the site to replace Blast Furnace II, which was sold to China in 1990. The focus is on specific issues relating to energy consumption in the steel industry. The artist makes use of huge data sets and theme-specific image archives, which he lets an AI explore and sophisticated algorithms speculate on artistically.

Refik Anadol thereby sheds light on our changed perception of space and architecture in the conflict between historical place and digital object, which is continuously taking place due to the entry of smartphones and urban screens into our everyday life. The results are excursions into alternative realities inspired by quantum physics that allow us to view our own reality from a new perspective.

More about the project