Refik Anadol, “Artificial Realities: Coral”, 2023. By courtesy of Refik Anadol Studios.

In London, Serpentine opens its doors for visitors to explore the artist Refik Anadol’s solo exhibition “Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive” on February 16. Producing audio-visual live performances, location-specific installations, and parametric sculptures, Anadol takes the audience on a gripping journey utilizing an artificial intelligence model trained with the visual data of coral reefs and rainforests in his first major institutional exhibition in the UK.

Refik Anadol, “Artificial Realities: Coral”, 2023. By courtesy of Refik Anadol Studios.

“Echoes of the Earth” was created using the “Large Nature Model,” a multi-mode artificial intelligence tool trained on a dataset of wildlife. Developed through extensive interdisciplinary research by Anadol’s studio, the model utilizes publicly accessible data from reputable institutions, including the Smithsonian Institution and the Natural History Museum in London.

In the exhibition, the artwork titled 'Artificial Realities: Coral' invites the audience into the depths of marine life through a multi-channel audio-visual experience. This experience is developed by an artificial intelligence model trained with approximately 5 billion coral images available online.

The exhibition also features the premiere of the artist's artwork titled 'Living Archive: Nature', commissioned for the 2024 Summit of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Adapted for the Serpentine exhibition, the artwork transforms the gallery venue into a rainforest using three-dimensional printouts of fauna and flora data from around the world, generated by artificial intelligence.

Refik Anadol, “Artificial Realities: Coral”, 2023. By courtesy of Refik Anadol Studios.

In a creative universe inspired by the human brain and produced in collaboration with an artificial intelligence model that utilizes surrounding data as its primary material, Anadol explores the prevalence of technology in our daily lives, its impact on our perception of time and space, and humanity's position in the era of artificial intelligence. The Serpentine is an institution that has closely followed artificial intelligence technology since 2014. Various projects conducted with artists Cécile B. Evans, James Bridle, Jenna Sutela, Ian Cheng, Pierre Huyghe, and Hito Steyerl, as well as the Creative AI Lab established in collaboration with King's College London, are prime examples of Anadol's contributions to the field. Bringing together Anadol’s recent artworks, this exhibition marks the beginning of Serpentine’s Art Technologies Department's AI-focused research program.

Curated by Claude Adjil and organized by Liz Stumpf (assistant curator), Brittany Stewart, and Halime Özdemir (production), “Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive” can be visited until 7 April 2024.