Moment of Reflection

Tonight, Wednesday the 20th of April, I visited the Murphy Sculpture Garden in order to enjoy the presentation of UCLA lecturer and alumnus of the Department of Design Media, Refik Anadol.

UCLA's Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden is a collection of over 70 sculpture spanning 5 acres. [1]

Anadol heads his own studio and lab in Los Angeles where he is invested in the process of "discovering and developing trailblazing approaches to data narratives and artificial intelligence"[2]. Anadol's artwork contains the general theme of understanding humanity in an age where AI is just as prevalent as natural intelligence and is able to augment our perception of time and space. For this reason, I feel that Anadol's work is a gentle reminder of the content covered in last week's lecture, where we were introduced to the decades-long attempt of scientists, technologists, and artists coming together to re-present our information-based world [3]. Indeed, in reading the explanations of Anadol in regard to his own work, I find parallels in the writings of Roy Ascott, an early artist who has employed cybernetic principles into his work since the 1960's. Ascott pioneered technoetic aesthetics, exploring what he called self-governing art, allowing his interactive art to take on its own identity, independent from the artist, similar to how he envisioned artificial life might function some day[4]. In my experience, Anadol's piece, "Moment of Reflection", no less elevated my consciousness and helped me to ponder the autonomy of digitalization.

[5] Nearly a thousand people, including Chancellor Gene Block, attended the opening night showcasing Anadol's "Moment of Reflection".

Arriving to the Sculpture Garden without having done any prior research on Anadol or his piece allowed for a raw experience of the art. In casual terms, I would say that this piece was "cool" or "trippy", yet I really took inspiration from the artwork's title, choosing to reflect in meditative awareness, a nice break from my rather saddening and strenuous week. I grew curious about how the art was produced, how colors so subtly crossed thresholds and isolated blobs merged with fluid bodies; I could even swear that I was able to make out sunsets and landscapes. It appears that this piece was crafted especially for our campus by some computing process wherein over 300 million photographs of nature have been processed. The piece emobdies a sense of connected memory of our shared moments, with the outcome being a 'hallucination' produced by the AI [6].

[7] Anadol uses machine intelligence and algorithms that generates shifting visual associations as though the machine itself were dreaming.

Unfortunately I was not able to load a video from the event, nor was I able to snag a photo a worker because it was dark out by then, but this image gives some idea of the multisensory experience.

[1] Vanessa. “UCLA Sculpture Garden.” L. A. Places, Www.blogger.com, 11 July 2010, http://laplaces.blogspot.com/2009/05/ucla-sculpture-garden.html.

[2] Anadol, Refik. “About.” Refik Anadol, 29 Mar. 2022, https://refikanadol.com/about.

[3] Vesna, Victoria. “Robotics pt2” Lecture. CoLE DESMA 9. April 16. 2012. Web.

[4] Ascott, Roy. “Seeing Double: Art and the Technology of Transcendence.” Academia.edu, 22 May 2014, https://www.academia.edu/1104121/Seeing_Double_art_and_the_technology_of_transcendence.

[5] Harbicht, Matt. “Dazzling Multimedia Art Installation Inspires Personal Contemplation among Campus Community.” UCLA, UCLA Newsrooom, 21 Apr. 2022, https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/refik-anadol-s-moment-of-reflection-wows-campus-audience.[6] Wolf, Jessica. “UCLA Presents Unique Multimedia Art Installation April 19–24 in Campus Sculpture Garden.” UCLA, UCLA Newsroom, 19 Apr. 2022, https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/refik-anadol-moment-of-reflection.

[7] WIRED. “How This Guy Uses A.I. to Create Art | Obsessed | WIRED.” Youtube, Wired.com, 16 Jan. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-EIVlHvHRM.