Technology + artistic spirit = Who is Refik Anadol?

Refik Anadol, a media artist and director, was born in Istanbul in 1985.

He lost his father at the age of 15 as a result of a heart attack. About his father, Anadol said, “He was very good at puzzles. When I got home from school, I saw the results and was mesmerized. In one day, he could put thousands of pieces together. Now I realize that he was actually thinking like artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence also has millions of parts. It's obviously a passion of my father. I followed my father's footsteps."

He was highly supported by his mother, aunt, and uncle while growing up. In many interviews, Anadol stated that the family environment contributed a lot to him and that he always saw his family behind his success. He has been married for thirteen years to his friend Efsun Anadol, who he studied at the same university.

Refik Anadol also received his Master's Degree in Fine Arts from Istanbul Bilgi University. He moved to the USA to study his second graduate program. He received his second master's degree from the Media Arts (UCLA) program at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. He is currently working as a lecturer in the same department at UCLA.

Based in Los Angeles, the artist is a lecturer at UCLA's Department of Design Media Arts. He works in the field of site-specific public art with the parametric data sculpture approach, and in the field of live audio-visual performance with the immersive installation approach. Anadol's work explores the space between digital and physical assets, creating a hybrid relationship between architecture and media arts. In terms of education, he received a master's degree in Media Art at the University of California, Department of Fine Arts, and Visual Communication Design and Photography, and Video education at Bilgi University.

Refik Anadol pushes the limits of 3D possibilities and creates a digital asset with the help of artificial intelligence, data science and machine learning technologies. The artist summarizes his work as follows: “The possibility of deepening the dialogue between human and machine, or the potential of a machine to make people ask questions that they have not asked before, has a very strong meaning and turns into an experience that strengthens this possibility, and this strives to make the invisible visible.“

In short, the artist takes his inspiration from science and technology. Along with science and technology, it also attaches importance to experiences that envelop the audience. He uses architecture as a canvas and designs stories with science and technology on them. The artist, who gave speeches and exhibited his works in many countries of the world, has received many awards so far. Some of these awards are: Microsoft Research's Best Vision Award, German Design Award, UCLA Art Architecture Moss Award, the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts Award, SEGD Global Design Award, and Google's Art and Machine Intelligence Artist Residency Award.

Meeting Bill Gates

It was not easy for Anadol to realize his dreams in America. Many of his professors told him to give up in disbelief, but Anadol did not give up and attended the annual design and technology symposium organized by Microsoft Research in 2012. Anadol climbed on top of Microsoft's main building in Seattle in shorts and explained his dreams in the most candid way in eight minutes. When he got off the stage, Bill Gates was sitting on his right and said: “I listened to ten people from the best schools in the world. They said such ordinary things… applications, start-ups, they are all after product making… The only artist was that boy in shorts. Just in what he told me, I felt that one's imagination had to turn into reality." And then Bill Gates shook Anadol's hand and gave him a scholarship.

Anadol sees this award as the breaking point of his life.

Refik Anadol's work "Machine Hallucinations-Nature Dreams: Al Data Sculpture 2021 1/1" published on the Opensea NFT platform was sold for 300.69420 Etherium. The work, which corresponds to approximately 1.2 million dollars, was purchased by a collector named “Mabu”. Digital art auction platform Nifty Gateway congratulated Refik Anadol for selling his NFT work at a record price.

Some of Refik Anadol's Works and Exhibitions

Active Structures; Acoustic Formation (Istanbul Design Biennial -Turkey)

The Aether Project Study (Walt Disney-Los Angeles 2014)

Infinity Room (SXSW-Texas 2015)

Virtual Depictions (San Francisco -USA 2015 ).

Compound Artwork (Beverly Center Mall-Los Angeles 2017)

Google Artists and Machine Intelligence (SALT-Istanbul 2017)

Machine Hallucinations (Seoul-South Korea 2019)

Quantum Memories (Melbourne-Australia 2020)

Machine Memoirs: Space (Pilevneli Gallery-Istanbul 2021)

Alkasar Dream (Beyoğlu-Istanbul 2021)