Unsupervised AI at MoMA
A monumental site-specific digital work Unsupervised by Refik Anadol (b. 1985, Istanbul, Turkey) is now displayed at MoMA until April 15. A massive 24 × 24 feet LED media wall in the museum’s lobby displays AI’s art, which is accompanied by dramatic ambient sound. Anadol’s website explains that Unsupervised is part of Anadol Studio’s ongoing project Hallucinations. Unsupervised draws images from MoMA’s collection and generates new and often mesmerizing moving images that morph and change in a lava-lamp fashion. It uses DCGAN, PGAN, and StyleGAN algorithms to create a multidimensional kaleidoscope that cycles through the vast archive of modern art. The resulting image is generated in real-time and the artist claims that each moment created by Unsupervised is unique, but there are definite patterns and cycles that AI goes through. By visiting the museum several times while the work was on display, I observed several distinct faces that AI cycles through, – drawing-based, melting ice, cotton candy, and popcorn. Each phase is interesting in its own way but the results become as predictable as early Microsoft screensavers.
In theory, Unsupervised follows the tradition of Surrealist automatic drawings by André-Aimé-René Masson, Joan Miró, and Salvador Dalí. On the surface, Anador’s work is as visually compelling, but it fails to make us either laugh or feel. Perhaps, for now, Unsupervised belongs to the world of high-end computer wallpapers. The monumental scale, the hidden algorithms, and the sheer expanse of the production add a layer of importance and magnetism, without exciting any feelings beyond the simple wow one feels in front of the new generation of a large TV. Unsupervised found a way to be mesmerizing, but to find a soul perhaps it still needs some human supervision.
