Dataland opens as a laboratory for immersive AI art experiences

Artist Refik Anadol has launched Dataland, a new experiential gallery in downtown Los Angeles that aims to reshape public perception of artificial intelligence as a creative medium. The venue, which opened on June 20 as a museum-scale space for AI-generated art, drew more than 10,000 visitors in its first two weeks.

An interactive vision powered by nature data#

The gallery's opening exhibition, Machine Dreams: Rainforest, represents Anadol's most elaborate undertaking yet. The installation employs wearable biometric devices—modified medical-grade smartwatches and shoulder harnesses—that track visitors' movements, heart rates, and body temperature. These sensors feed real-time data into dynamic visual and sensory displays that shift in response to each person's presence and movement.

Anadol built the underlying technology, called the Large Nature Model, from scratch over three years. Rather than relying on existing datasets, he and his team collected petabytes of raw material from rainforests, including the Amazon, and partnered with research institutions like the Smithsonian to incorporate scientific archives. This approach reflects a deliberate effort to source training data ethically, with consent from researchers—a contrast to widespread criticism of major tech firms for unlicensed use of creative content.

Multiple sensory spaces within the gallery#

The largest room features a 40-minute visual cycle displayed across walls and floors, where individual movements create ripples and water effects that adapt to the crowd's presence. The installation even releases scents tied to the biometric data—visitors smell rain during storm sequences, for instance.

Other sections include an Infinity Room, where visitors follow a hummingbird through a neon forest in a POV experience, and the Latent Gallery, which reveals the training data behind the AI model. Visitors can browse the dataset by category—selecting "Frogs" displays thousands of frog images that informed the machine's outputs.

The final space, the Sanctuary, generates an abstract 3D visualization of the group's collective biometric information, including heart rate and movement patterns, creating a unique representation that vanishes once visitors leave.

Data privacy and a shift in purpose#

Anadol emphasizes that the gallery treats data with deliberate care, employing what he frames as the inverse of surveillance capitalism. The system forgets visitor data upon departure, though individuals receive a personal token containing their biometric imprint as a keepsake. He notes that Dataland runs on Google Cloud with "experimental low-energy" resources, minimizing environmental impact.