Art & Technology #22: Refik Anadol
Aesthetics of Digital Reality
Infinite space is now an artistic experience. <Infinity Room>(2015) presented in Istanbul by media artist Refik Anadol was a highly immersive video-projection piece. Visitors were drawn into it, body and mind engulfed by the non-material environment, becoming aware of self- presence in the space. The installation is part of the artist’s 'Temporary Immersive Environment Experiments' through which he studies and works with audio and visual installations. <Infinity Room> plays a central role as part of the artist’s experiment.
Refik Anadol works primarily through his creation of illusionary spaces achieved by live audio-visual performances, installations, projection mapping, and architectural photography. As an artist, he takes a radical approach, seeking to disassemble the static and perfunctory framework of illusionary spaces. <Infinity Room> was an experimentation in using three-dimensional movement to transform existing flat-screen cinema projections into architectural space. Through such radical experiments, the artist penetrates his gaze past the screen and the frame, the see-able, and how we understand the perception of sight.
Dynamic perception of space and technology
Istanbul was not the first project to place Anadol in the limelight. The day the Los Angeles Philharmonic performed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the audience was also introduced to <Visions of America: Ameriques>(2014). As the Philharmonic performed Edgard Varèse’s <Amériques>, an architectural video presentation in real time was choreographed and projected, a creation of Refik Anadol. Using projection mapping techniques, Anadol projected images on to the walls, ceiling, and balcony of the concert hall, creating an unforgettable orchestration of music and visual spectacle. The light projection and diverse effects moved around the hall, evolving and shifting in cadence to the orchestrated music. An entire level of multisensory experience was added upon the multisensory spectacle as the kinect camera tracked the motions of the conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen's as he conducted.
Responding to both the music and to the motions of the conductor, the software developed by Anadol continually generated new and interesting images for map-projection.
Anadol is world renowned for projecting dynamic images to public architecture as he had done at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Although there have been quite a few artists working with projection mapping techniques, Anadol stands at the forefront of digital art, for the reason that his images are much more than what they seem to be. Akin to entering a three-dimensional simulation, his art creates a whole new dimension of space, where the his images are themselves sculpture, installation, canvas, and environment.
Alternate Reality
‘Virtual Depictions: San Francisco’ which he presented in 2015 at San Francisco was an indoor project that captured viewers. Anadol's public art commission for the 350 Mission Building in San Francisco was a large-scale media art installation in the building lobby, a fantastic yet unassuming touch in the architectural space. Through convergence between architecture and media art, the artist explores the realm between the digital and physical objects. Through it, the artist sought to visualize an alternate reality that seems more real than reality, opening new possibilities for digital architecture. Furthermore, he explored and redefined the potential of form and function of interior and exterior architecture.
As an artist, Anadol chose architecture as a means to tell a visual story using parametric data to create site-specific public art installations, kinetic façades in particular. Parametric data is derived from independent variables of graphical input, processed from visual information such as curves and surface points. Originally developed for use in CAD(Computer Assisted Design) systems, Anadol applied it for a different use in kinetic façades. His public art draws exclusively from digital technology to present a new visceral and spatial aesthetic. The audio-visual performance installations created at his fingertips are immersive, drawing in viewers into a mesmerizing illusion. Light is an important element in his works, using it as a medium to blur and bridge boundaries between reality and fiction, physical possibilities to virtualities.
Experience of Digital Illusion
Digital illusions created by Anadol present viewers with a spatial "experience", and in the course of that action, as viewers appreciate the space, they undergo change that the artist also monitors. As the viewer reacts and interacts to the nomadic theme of his sculpture, they are invited into a space untethered from the changes of contemporary culture. From smartphones to city screens, Anadol investigates how digital objects dominate the lives of people. Beyond merging media into constructed form, he embraces new media technologies into spatial design. Through his projects, Anadol presents limitless possibilities for media artists in terms of how architectural space or facade can be as a canvas. A convergent relationship is created between architecture and media art, exploring the in-between space of the digital and the physical, the ephemeral nature of space, creating new space with light.
Presenting immersive environments that transverse time and space, Refik Anadol values dynamic over static; he himself existing somewhere in-between architect, media artist, and engineer. His new aesthetics, profound techniques, dynamic perception of space and architecture, in-depth studies, come together as digital illusions. How many more dimensions of digital illusion will Anadol unfold in the future? ■ with ARTINPOST
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<Virtual Depictions> 2015
Data Sculpture Public art commission for 350 Mission Building in City of San Francisco, California ⓒ Refik Anadol
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<Virtual Depictions> 2015
Data Sculpture Public art commission for 350 Mission Building in City of San Francisco, California ⓒ Refik Anadol
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<Virtual Depictions> 2015
Data Sculpture Public art commission for 350 Mission Building in City of San Francisco, California ⓒ Refik Anadol
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<Infinity Room> 2015
12” Instanbul, Turkey ⓒ Refik Anadol
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<Infinity Room> 2015
12” Instanbul, Turkey ⓒ Refik Anadol
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<Visions of America: Amerigues> 2014
25” Audio/Visual performance conducted by Esa-pekka Salonen, perfomed by Los Angeles Philhamonic Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, USA ⓒ Refik Anadol
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<Visions of America: Amerigues> 2014
25” Audio/Visual performance conducted by Esa-pekka Salonen, perfomed by Los Angeles Philhamonic Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, USA ⓒ Refik Anadol
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<Visions of America: Amerigues> 2014
25” Audio/Visual performance conducted by Esa-pekka Salonen, perfomed by Los Angeles Philhamonic Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, USA ⓒ Refik Anadol
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<Augmenting Spatiality> 2012
Sydney, Australia ⓒ Refik Anadol
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<Augmenting Spatiality> 2012
Sydney, Australia ⓒ Refik Anadol
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<City of Bits / LADOT> 2016
City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Public Art Commission ⓒ Refik Anadol
Profile
Refik Anadol was born in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1985. He is a California-based media artist who works internationally. Anadol is the co-founder and creative director of Antilop. He has lectured and hosted talks at prominent institutions including Google, New York University(NYU), and University of California, Los Angeles(UCLA). His works have been presented at globally recognized events including the ‘Montreal Design Biennial’ and the ‘Istanbul Design Biennial’ in 2012, and the ‘Istanbul Light Festival’ in 2015.
