AI Art generators may be getting their turn in the spotlight now, with a proliferation of apps available for public use, but Turkish artist Refik Anadol has already gone above and beyond that, with his unique method of producing original AI Art.

Harnessing over 100 million visual materials from archives and personally collected images from Iceland, Greenland and Antarctica, Refik takes this data and processes it through machine learning algorithms into a dataset that produces AI-based multi-sensory narratives. Christened the Glacier Dreams series, the work takes inspiration from nature and transforms the visual material it draws from into a video representation of the mathematical data, crafting what could be seen as an interpreted dream as it plays across the screen.

Fresh from a showcase at Art Dubai 2023, Glacier Dreams now arrives in Singapore as part of the 2023 i Light Singapore festival, in collaboration with Swiss wealth management group Julius Baer for the first time in Singapore as part of the group’s NEXT initiative. Says Refik: “It is very exciting to showcase Glacier Dreams in Singapore and to be part of Julius Baer’s inaugural NEXT initiative. Glacier Dreams is our studio’s long-term research and art project at the intersection of multi-sensory experiences, machine learning and environmental studies. We hope to illuminate the danger of glaciers disappearing across the globe but in a way that brings hope, inspiration and joy to humanity.”

Says Larissa Alghisi, Chief Communications Officer at Julius Baer: “NEXT was born out of a need to understand new investment opportunities, and making megatrends more accessible, something we would do through artistic intervention. The idea was to bring together science and technology and art, much like we do with investment research. With Glacier Dreams as our first commissioned work, Refik has been a fantastic artist to work with, and the ideal partner for these explorations, where his art is always set at intersection of technology, data, AI and humanity, and successfully brings together a dataset related to beauty and fragility of nature into one.”

Jimmy Lee, Member of the Executive Board, Julius Baer Group Ltd and Head Asia Pacific, said: “Julius Baer has a long history of supporting the arts, which we are pleased to extend to Asia. The bank’s commission of Anadol’s artwork, ‘Glacier Dreams’, exemplifies our dedication to artistic innovation. Through the Julius Baer NEXT initiative, we delve into megatrends and facilitate collaboration between visionary artists and institutions. Recognising the transformative power of technology and its fusion with the arts and sciences, Julius Baer is at the vanguard of cultivating cutting-edge art forms that echo society’s evolving priorities.”

Refik is no stranger to this art form, with research and practice in this field since 2016, long before AI and AI-generated content became the buzzwords of today. “I still can’t really draw properly, but that’s where all these formulas and algorithms come in,” says Refik. “My team and I have been long-time proponents of big data, and I consider myself a first generation AI artist. I believe that while all this talk about AI is good for the younger generation and people to start thinking about it, these generators don’t really produce true ‘creativity’.”

That’s where Refik comes in, with his own unique algorithms. “Artists are responsible for their tools, and should harness the infinite potential AI has,” he says. “A lot of people working with AI are merely looking for hallucinations they produce by influencing them with input and language, but I think it is important to go beyond the boundaries set, and see how we can push it to another level, whether it’s AI-generated sound or even smells.”

Glacier Dreams feels especially appropriate to be running as part of i Light Singapore, which prides itself on being a sustainable light festival. Not only does the work draw attention to the beauty of ice and how climate change is rapidly destroying them, but also, the process of generating the work also produces zero carbon emissions, making it sustainable.

“It’s important to showcase such artwork in a public space, and emphasise how much we need to preserve nature; icebergs naturally change over time, but climate change has made it more rapid,” says Refik. “For us, part of the joy of this project also lay in realising the amount of information you can find is brilliant. Beyond harnessing data from the cloud, it also required us to travel and personally collect data using cameras, microphones and drones.”

Beyond the message of becoming aware of climate change, Refik’s body of work as a whole addresses the challenges, and the possibilities, that ubiquitous computing has imposed on humanity, and what it means to be a human in the age of AI. Its presence alone seems to suggest that we too must adapt to learn to live in such a world, and most of all, work together to figure out the way forward, whether redefining our existence, or taking full advantage of the opportunities such technology and new media offers us.

“I think that my work is at the meeting point of art and science, and I welcome discourse and all perspectives,” says Refik. “It’s a complex process of co-creation and co-thinking, and I do hope that in terms of discussions, people are more willing to share openly about their own research and advancements without being too protective of it, such that we can all learn together and push this even further.”

Glacier Dreams is being projected on the façade of the ArtScience Museum during i Light Singapore, held from 1st to 25th June from 7.30 p.m. to 11.00 p.m. daily, with extended hours to 12.00 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. More information available here