What nature looks like in AI’s eyes

Turkish artist Refik Anadol, who attracted attention with the AI-made piece titled “Unsupervised” on display at the lobby area of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, visited South Korea on the occasion of his upcoming exhibition - “Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive” scheduled next Thursday at “Futura Seoul,” an exhibition space located in Jongno-gu, central Seoul. He hoped that his exhibition would help increase awareness of AI technology, he said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Visitors walk along four sections subdivided in the venue. Once they take some first steps into the hall, they come across a video explaining how the generative AI model “Large Nature Model,” which plays a key role in his work, has been conceived. It adopts a documentary narrative to record Anadol and his studio crew exploring rainforests across the globe to collect data with the help of cutting-edge technology.

In a small room annexed to this section, visitors encounter the “Living Archive,” a wide-type screen on which rainforests around the world are depicted in the eyes of AI technology. The third section displays “Artificial Realities: Coral,” where AI-generated images of coral reefs are projected up on the ceiling.

Interestingly, this work of art may look similar to “Unsupervised” displayed at MoMA – although the former interprets artworks and uses real images of nature and rainforests. Asked if what matters most is viewers’ interpretations given that results seem unaffected by whatever data are fed to the AI model, the artist said that this work changes ceaselessly as time goes on because it records what is alive, adding that he uses data - color paints that never get dry – just as Monet, Gogh and other artists stick to their original styles and techniques.


Min Kim kimmin@donga.com