Refik Anadol's 'Inner Portrait' Is An Evocative "Data Sculpture"
An immersive room of exquisite colors, textures and graphics engulfs visitors.
Artist Refik Anadol boasts a multifaceted practice that combines media arts, architecture, data and machine intelligence to create immersive experiences. His latest effort, Inner Portrait, is an evocative “data sculpture,” or a room full of exquisite colors, textures and graphics.
Created in partnership with Turkish Airlines, Inner Portrait translates biological and neurological data from four first-time travelers into AI-generated images. This process portrays the four individuals’ responses to the highly visceral process of traveling and being in new environments — grappling with the profound impact of travel and evoking in visitors a sense of adventure, perhaps even nostalgia, as they recall their first journeys. The data collected was also synthesized from the vivid impressions of landmarks and cities, like Petra (a historical city in southern Jordan), the Istanbul Grand Bazaar and Tokyo. Viewers are surrounded by dazzling pigments and movements cascading along the four walls, enhanced by mirrored floors and ceilings projecting Rorschach reflections of themselves.
On November 27, the Atatürk Cultural Center in Istanbul premiered a 30-minute documentary that provided further insight into the making of Inner Portrait. In documenting the stimulating journeys of the four individuals, Anadol described his use of machine learning approaches like supervised learning — a machine learning technique that uses labeled datasets to train algorithms to recognize patterns and predict outcomes for processing the data — and the influence of pioneering neurological research like the Human Connectome Project, which aims to map the neural pathways that underlie human brain function, on his practice. One of the most remarkable findings was in Tuikuru, a participant from the Yawanawa tribe in the Amazon. “As a Shaman, his brain signals [were] incredibly grounded,” said Anadol.
Atatürk Cultural Center
Atatürk Cultural Center
Atatürk Cultural Center
In an age when data privacy is fraught with controversy and fear, Anadol noted how critical it was for him and his team to collect the data both meticulously and ethically, with complete transparency and willingness from the participants. The four participants were selected for their unique backgrounds, diverse perspectives and openness they brought to the artistic process and journey. Anadol’s immersive installation encourages us to rethink our engagement with the physical world as he manifests another impressive aesthetic exploration on the frontier of technology.
Inner Portrait will begin a global tour in 2025, and the aforementioned documentary will be available on streaming platforms in the coming months as well. Get more info here.
