Machine Hallucinations — Space : Metaverse NFT Collection at Sotheby’s

Machine Hallucinations — Space : Metaverse is a breathtaking collection from digital media artist Refik Anadol. It includes richly diverse artworks inspired by his studio’s collaboration with NASA JPL which began in early 2018, and his long-term research into the photographic history of space exploration. Using advanced machine learning algorithms trained specifically on photographs of deep space captured by satellites and spacecrafts throughout humanity’s quest to explore its depths, Anadol creates mesmerizing visual speculations of the unknown. The works explore our fascination with the subject while unveiling intricate connections between obscurity and openness through both digital and physical mediums.

Studying the visuals that have been captured by the most comprehensive machines sent to outer space inspired Anadol to contemplate the idea that telescopes keep visual travel journals of spaces where humans cannot yet travel. From this, Anadol and his team members began speculating the possibility that telescopes, which collect so many images in their memories, could dream about the universe.

The entire collection was created by using over two million raw images captured and recorded by the International Space Station, the Hubble and MRO telescopes, providing a vast dataset to train a generative adversarial network. An in-depth look into Refik’s process can be found here.

“In 2016, during my artist residency at Google’s Artists and Machine Intelligence (AMI) program, I coined the terms ‘AI Data Painting’and ‘AI Data Sculpture’ as a way to encapsulate a groundbreaking exploration into the creative capacities of artificial intelligence. This concept was born from a profound curiosity: if a machine can learn, can it also dream? Can it hallucinate? These questions propelled my artistic inquiry, leading to the development of visual works that transcend traditional art forms. By harnessing vast datasets and AI algorithms, I sought to visualize the dreams of machines, creating ethereal landscapes that blur the line between the digital and the physical. AI Data Painting thus represents not just a new technique, but a philosophical pondering on the evolving relationship between human creativity and machine intelligence, inviting viewers to contemplate the potential for AI to not only mimic reality but to imagine beyond it.”