Photo: Matador Network/TikTok

AI Meets Art at the MoMA’s Striking and Surreal ‘Unsupervised’ Exhibition

New York City Museums
by Matador Creators Feb 21, 2023

New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is one of the most famous museums in the world for good reason — it houses almost 200,000 precious artworks and brings in some of the most innovative and impressive exhibitions you’ll ever see. One such exhibition is currently on display through April 15. Titled “Unsupervised” by Turkish media artist Refik Anadol, the exhibition explores the intersection of art and artificial intelligence through vibrant and visionary digital installations created using a machine-learning model.

@matadornetwork Unsupervised by Refik Anado is on display at the #MoMA through March 5th! The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is undoubtedly one of the most famous museums in all of #NYC. Located in midtown Manhattan, the MoMA features a collection of over 200,000 classic and modern artworks spread out over six floors, including paintings, drawings, photos, sculptures, and performance #artpieces. Share this with someone who needs to see this stunning #workofart 🎨 🎥 @explorenyc_now 📍New York City, NY #artexhibit #nyctravel #visitnyc ♬ original sound – Matador Network

The MoMA’s website introduces the exhibition by posing the question: “What would a machine dream about after seeing the collection of The Museum of Modern Art?” To create “Unsupervised,” Anadol instructed a machine-learning model to study the MoMA’s current collection and output unique digital artworks based on its interpretation.

The museum’s collection includes artworks from around the world spanning roughly 150 years, providing plenty of data on modern art expressions for Anadol’s model to study. Anadol also used “site-specific input” such as lighting, motion, and sound inside the museum, as well as the weather outside, as data points that helped yield the collection’s changing audio and visuals. The result is striking and surreal installations displayed on an awe-inspiringly large scale.

On his inspiration behind the exhibition, the MoMA has quoted Anadol as saying, “I am trying to find ways to connect memories with the future and to make the invisible visible.”

Much as the foundation of “Unsupervised” relies on blockchain-encoded works, visitors to the exhibition will also be able to take home a free, limited-edition, blockchain-based souvenir of the experience that can be claimed via QR code.

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