Machine Hallucinations: Collectors Edition by Refik Anadol

About Machine Hallucinations Machine Hallucinations is an ongoing project of data aesthetics based on collective visual memories of space, nature, and urban environments by Refik Anadol Studio. Since the inception of the project in 2016 (Google AMI Residency), our studio has been utilizing machine intelligence as a collaborator to human consciousness, specifically focused generative AI algorithms trained on these vast datasets to unfold unrecognized layers of our external realities.

We collect data from digital archives and publicly available resources and process them with publicly available machine learning classification models such as CNN’s, Variational Autoencoders and deep ranking, to filter out people, noise and irrelevant data points for curatorial purposes. The curated image datasets are then clustered into thematic categories to better understand the semantic context of the each data universe.This expanding data universe not only represents the interpolation of data as synthesis, but also becomes a latent cosmos in which hallucinative potential is the main currency of artistic creativity. In order to capture these hallucinations from a multi-dimensional space, we use NVIDIA’s StyleGAN, StyleGAN2 and StyleGAN2 ADA which generates a model for the machine to process the archive and the model is trained on subsets of the curated images, creating embeddings in 1024 dimensions. Our custom Latent Space Browser software allows us to interact with trained models and generate unique and curated latent walks.

The final stage of artistic computation reveals Refik Anadol's pioneering work in machine-generated aesthetics and synesthetic perception through various forms of data paintings, sculptures and immersive latent cinematic experiences. Fluid dynamics has inspired Anadol since the inception of Machine Hallucinations. The studio's exploration of data pigmentation and light through fluid-solver algorithms accelerated by GPU computation and real time ray-traced lighting made possible by NVIDIA RTX GPUs brings his inspiration to life in a masterfully curated multi-channel experience. Machine Hallucinations brings a self-regenerating element of surprise to the audience and offers a new form of sensational autonomy via cybernetic serendipity.