Museum opened at Frank Gehry-designed The Grand LA in Los Angeles

Turkish conglomerate Yıldız Holding invested $1.25 million in Dataland Museum, the artificial intelligence-powered art museum founded by internationally acclaimed digital artist Refik Anadol and co-founder, painter Efsun Erkılıç  

As part of the investment, Anadol will create a bespoke digital artwork for Yıldız Holding that will become part of the company’s corporate art collection. (By the way I have a story here about Yıldız Ventures)

Dataland, which opened on June 20 at Frank Gehry-designed The Grand LA in Los Angeles with the inaugural exhibition Machine Dreams: Rainforest, is described as the world’s first museum dedicated to AI-generated and data-driven art.

Museum to visit several cities

The museum combines data, artificial intelligence and visitor interaction to create immersive exhibitions in which artworks evolve in real time based on audience participation. Using AI models inspired by nature, biometric interaction and multisensory experiences, Dataland aims to present a new vision for the future of art.

Following its debut in Los Angeles, the project plans to expand to cities including London, Dubai, Riyadh, Hong Kong and Seoul, positioning itself as a global cultural platform that brings together art and technology.

Commenting on the investment, Yıldız Holding Board Member Murat Ülker said Dataland’s distinguishing feature lies in its ability to generate unique, nonrepeatable artistic experiences. He said data collected through wearable wristbands worn by visitors is combined with live data streams from a randomly selected rainforest, creating a one-of-a-kind performance unique to that moment.

“This is a form of art that belongs entirely to that specific moment,” Ülker said. “That is where true originality in art begins.”

Photo: (from left) Murat Ülker (Member of the Board at Yıldız Holding), Efsun Erkılıç (Co-Founder at Dataland) and Refik Anadol (Co-Founder at Dataland)