Machine Simulations: Life & Dreams by Refik Anadol © Hanwha LIFEPLUS
Impact One, in partnership with Ikona, commissioned Machine Simulations:
Life & Dreams (Hee Ro Ae Rak) by Refik Anadol for Hanwha LIFEPLUS,
unveiling the brand new and first permanent Refik Anadol artwork in South
Korea on the occasion of the Seoul International Firework Festival in October
2023. The artwork serves as a representation of contemporary Korean urban
life and is on display in the East Lobby of the Hanwha Group’s headquarters
at the iconic 63 Building in Seoul. Incorporating vivid pigments, shapes and
patterns, Life & Dreams offers an immersive experience that simulates the
sense of excitement similar to watching a firework display.
For the Hanwha Group, fireworks are associated with zeal and represent
the determination of many people to deliver a common goal or promise. The
artwork allows Hanwha to express its values through artistic practice and
connects the group to South Korea’s vibrant cultural scene.
Impact One CEO, Mikolaj Sekutowicz, attended the private opening and
public unveiling alongside Refik Anadol and his partner Efsun Erkilic.
Offering insights into the creative process behind the work, Refik shared:
“We used one of the most recent large language models (LLMs), the most
advanced AI research and we let the AI dream of hope and possibility, to
create one of the most advanced AI dreams and take the beautiful Korean
firework moments into the artwork, to celebrate life and dreams.”
Machine Simulations: Life & Dreams by Refik Anadol © RAS
Life & Dreams takes viewers on a 16-minute multi-sensory journey of light,
colour and movement based on vast datasets. These include publicly available
firework images, K-Pop dance video databases, datasets of brain activities
collected with EEG sensors and Korean classical music audio files. Told in
chapters, each chapter focuses on a unique look and feel, distinct colour
palette, virtual materials and body movements to bring different aspects of the
data to life from various aesthetic perspectives. The chapters are:
- Inspiration – 1,893,408 images of fireworks from all over the world inform this chapter, taken from publicly available and private archives
- Vigor – motion and representations of physicality by merging the firework dataset with an archive of carefully selected K-POP choreography recordings
- Serenity – an archive of brain activities collected with EEG sensors, fMRI and DTI imaging techniques are connected with the firework visual dataset to creative this meditative art chapter based on neurological data. Through an EEG human connectome project, the team was able to visualise data based on human joy and happiness.
- Hope – an audiovisual experience that connects visual qualities and colours of fireworks to complete the data narrative in a firework-induced dream-like state
The artwork was created by analysing and reinterpreting about 1.89 million
data sets related to the theme of ‘Happiness’. The digital media included
data from fireworks festivals around the world, including the Seoul World
Fireworks Festival, neural data measuring brain waves when people feel
happy and joyful, and Korean music data.
New media artist Refik Anadol © Hanwha LIFEPLUS
Refik Anadol Studio (RAS) harnesses, filters and utilises datasets to train AI
algorithms that help generate dynamic visuals and colour combinations.
The resulting AI Data Sculptures create a uniquely dynamic relationship
between art, science, and technology into the future, exploring how
creative human-machine collaborations can activate multiple senses and
simultaneous belongings.
With Life & Dreams, Refik Anadol became the first artist Hanwha LIFEPLUS
is working with as part of their new art program. The exhibition marks the
start of the program, which discovers and highlights overseas artists or
promising new artists who are not yet known in Korea. It is based on the
philosophy of LIFEPLUS of “making the lives of their customers valuable
and enriching” and will select outstanding emerging artists every year to
connect with art lovers and continue to discover cultural experiences that
make the daily lives of Koreans special through art.
Impact-one-commissions-machine-simulationslife-and-dreams
Hanwha Lifeplus Commissions Impact One And Refik Anadol Studio For New Artwork Celebrating Korean Culture
On the occasion of the Seoul International Firework Festival in October 2023, Impact One, in partnership with Ikona, commissioned Refik Anadol’s brand new and first permanent artwork in South Korea for Hanwha LIFEPLUS.
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