Looking Outwards 08

The Eyeo Festival is an event that gathers the most creative technology community. This community includes artists, data designers, creative coders, AI & XR explorers, storytellers, researchers, technology, and platform developers. The Eyeo Festival allows this intersection of people to share their passion and inspirations. After browsing through each year, I was very interested in a particular speaker from the Eyeo Festival in 2019.

Refik Anadol is a media artist and director, who was originally from Istanbul, Turkey. In addition to what he does, Anadol is also a spatial thinker and he is fascinated by the ways of transformation within contemporary culture that require one to think of new aesthetic techniques and change within the perception of space. In other words, the media artist combines media arts and architecture. In his lecture, Refik Anadol also presents some of this own work, as well as work from his studio. The work that is produced begins to rethink the possibility of post-digital architecture future by redefining the functionalities of interior and exterior architectural formations. Refik Anadol’s work begins to suggest the possibility that all spaces and their facades have the ability to be used as an artists’ canvas. He asks, “What will happen if the surfaces have this kind of narrative quality, like jumping between different parts of Mars by letting the machine hallucinate. And to create a new meaning. It might not be purposeful but it can be impactful in a way.”

Overall, this lecture has been a very exciting and interesting experience that also makes me think about the possibilities that Refik Anadol suggests within spaces and the function of exterior and interior walls. The relationship between technology and art is constantly transforming and improving. This talk has actually been a reminder of the possibilities that occur within our society and environment through this particular relationship. It also makes me curious about what our world will be like later in time. What will architecture be with the new innovative technology in the next 10 years?