{"id":2059083,"date":"2026-07-22T16:06:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2059083"},"modified":"2026-07-22T16:06:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:06:27","slug":"check-out-refik-anadols-ai-projection-smithsonian-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2059083","title":{"rendered":"Check Out Refik Anadol\u2019s AI Projection ‘Smithsonian Dreams’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\tDuring a brief pause in a years-long renovation that began in 2023, the Smithsonian\u2019s iconic red sandstone Castle hosted an immersive light and sound installation by Refik Anadol. The project, Smithsonian Dreams<\/em>, was projected onto the fa\u00e7ade of the building for two hours, starting at 9 PM, on Friday and Saturday evenings last week.<\/p>\n
\n\tA Smithsonian spokesperson estimates that 30,000-40,000 visitors settled onto the mall over the course of both nights to experience the multisensory project.<\/p>\n
Smithsonian Dreams<\/em>, like Anaol\u2019s breakthrough project Unsupervised<\/em>, mines an institution\u2019s archives and uses generative AI to transform the archival data into a colorful, mesmerizing visualization. In this case, Anadol\u2019s custom AI system pulled from nearly two centuries\u2019 worth digitized manuscripts, photographs, artworks, scientific records, and specimens found in the Smithsonian\u2019s sprawling collections held by museums, libraries, and research centers.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cFor me, data is a form of memory,\u201d Anadol said in a statement about the project. . . . Smithsonian Dreams<\/em> asks what might emerge if that vast memory could become dynamic, if the Castle itself could learn from its collections, reflect upon them and dream through them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smithsonian Dreams <\/em>kicked off a month after Anadol\u2019s controversial AI museum, Dataland, opened in downtown Los Angeles. Check out some photos of the two-night public art initiative below.<\/p>\n
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The Smithsonian\u2019s \u2018Castle\u2019 opened in 1855<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Photo Jeremy Norwood\/Courtsey Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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The red brick building was designed by James Renwick, Jr. and is on the south side of the National Mall<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Photo Jeremy Norwood\/Courtsey Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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Anadol\u2019s Smithsonian Dreams<\/em> mines millions of digitized items from the Institution\u2019s collections<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Photo Jeremy Norwood\/Courtsey Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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Anadol\u2019s custom visualization system uses a UMAP (Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection) algorithm<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Photo Jeremy Norwood\/Courtsey Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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Smithsonian Dreams<\/em> was projected onto the Castle facade on July 17 and 18<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Photo Jeremy Norwood\/Courtsey Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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Anadol\u2019s project asks what would happen \u201cif the Castle itself could learn from its collections\u201d?<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Photo Jeremy Norwood\/Courtsey Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Refik-Anadol_Credit-Efsun-Erkilic.jpeg?w=1024″] During a brief pause in a years-long renovation that began in 2023, the Smithsonian\u2019s iconic red sandstone Castle hosted an immersive light and sound installation by Refik Anadol. The project, Smithsonian Dreams, was projected onto the fa\u00e7ade of the building for two hours, starting at 9 PM, on Friday and Saturday evenings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2059083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2059083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2059083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2059083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2059083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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