Artist Refik Anadol talks through his project at LA’s Walt Disney Concert Hall
The Los Angeles Philharmonic collaborated with media artist Refik Anadol to celebrate its history and explore its future in a project called WDCH Dreams. The Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall is the LA Philharmonic’s current home and Anadol took over the facade of the building by projecting a changing series of patterns, photographs and text aided by artificial intelligence.
Using machine learning algorithms, Anadol and his team developed a unique approach to using the LA Philharmonic’s digital archives by turning 45 terabytes of data into stunning visualizations to play with. The result was a week-long public art installation that took over the building’s exterior facade. Below is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the project, and further on Anadol talks about how the project became a reality.
The original idea was to let a concert hall gain consciousness. The idea came to me the very first day I arrived in Los Angeles from Istanbul. I remember renting a car and driving downtown just to have a look at Walt Disney Concert Hall. I didn't know how to park – I received my first parking ticket in LA that night – but I immediately started dreaming. Now, almost six years later, that dream is alive.
Back then, I wasn’t aware of machine learning as a field of study. When I met Kenric McDowell of the Artists and Machine Intelligence program at an exhibition at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts [in 2016], it was a huge inspiration. Since that event, I began thinking of consciousness as a concept through the lens of machine learning. I began to believe that there must be a way to bring these two universes together: data visualization and machine intelligence.
Machine-learning-generated CAD drawings render onto the exterior of Walt Disney Concert Hall by Refik Anadol StudioLA Phil
Machine learning generate CAD drawings render onto the exterior of WDCH by Refik Anadol Studio (From the collection of LA Philharmonic)
Refik Anadol edits WDCH Dreams (2018-09-11) by Jackie RussoLA Phil
Refik Anadol edits WDCH Dreams by Jackie Russo (From the collection of LA Philharmonic)
WDCH Dreams is the most ambitious project I've ever embarked on from both technological, storytelling, and collaboration point of view. Looking at the LA Phil’s image and music archives was like looking at the memory of this institution. How would we find a meaning in this vast amount of information? It felt impossible. With machine learning, however, we were able to take every single data point – photos, events, sound recordings of music, theater, and opera – and unfold them through a new abstract language onto the facade of the concert hall.
Architect Frank Gehry, for example, donated his drawings of Walt Disney Concert Hall to LA Phil’s archives. Working with Ross Goodwin, a creative technologist with the Artists and Machine Intelligence program, we wondered, what would happen if AI trained on this entire pallet of drawings, and hallucinated a new home for the LA Phil based on these drawings? This was an incredibly creative aspect for me. Once a machine understands and classifies this information, you have a latent space that now you can ask anything to give you, like, an imagination back to you.
Projection rendering for WDCH Dreams by Refik Anadol StudioLA Phil
Projection rendering for WDCH Dreams by Refik Anadol Studio (From the collection of LA Philharmonic)
Projection rendering for WDCH Dreams by Refik Anadol StudioLA Phil
Projection rendering for WDCH Dreams by Refik Anadol Studio (From the collection of LA Philharmonic)
The biggest challenge was making a project that could be understood from the public space. I felt responsible for holding 100 years of precious memories in my hands.
After many months of using machine learning to analyze nearly 45 terabytes of data, the result was a 30-minute long, beautiful visual output that needed to be turned into a narrative. I was able to narrow down the storyboard into several chapters and understand which parts of the story needed to give what kind of feeling to the audience.
In the end, what the public is seeing and feeling is a complete abstraction. My favorite part is when the building begins to dream. It starts truly showing the inner structure of the building. It’s the very first time the skin disappears, and you can completely see the behind the walls of Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Seeing families, of all backgrounds, coming and enjoying it peacefully in downtown Los Angeles, hearing the performance, experiencing it – this is the moment you live for as an artist. You feel it completely.
