AI artwork: is it worthy of a place in a museum? Dataland in LA sure thinks it is.

What happens when artificial intelligence (AI) adopts the role of the artist for a museum exhibition? Curators and co-founders of Dataland, Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkiliç, answer this question by opening the first museum entirely created by AI in Los Angeles. The first exhibition is inspired by the Amazon Rainforest and aims to create a digital manifestation of nature. According to their own website, Dataland.art, the museum will unite pioneers in the arts, sciences, and the AI and tech industries. They aim to set a precedent for AI art by practising ethical AI use and data collection.

Funded by Google Cloud and NVIDIA, and supported by L’Oréal, the living museum is 35,000 square feet of moving images which respond to its audiences, even going as far as to collect audiences’ biometric data to display on the walls of the Sanctuary Room, reminding me of Spotify’s attempts at repackaging data farming as something exciting. So far public response to the museum has been largely positive. Influencers invited to the soft opening enjoyed the clever use of scent via an L’Oreal headset that emitted scents corresponding to the images they were shown. The immersive experience has been praised widely, with some going as far as to say they are now able to “touch (digital) grass,” which seems like a juxtaposition with the phrase’s original meaning.

They aim to set a precedent for AI art by practising ethical AI use and data collection.

It is questionable if nature is something that needs to be represented in a digital way, or if it should be experienced organically. Even though this is the first museum that is entirely created using AI, it is not the first instance of AI being used in museums. In both the UK and the US, museums have been placing emphasis on AI art and exploring its potential. The Design Museum in London held a temporary exhibition called Ai-Da: The Portrait of a Robot, which gave AI a silicone face and robotic arm and allowed it to draw and have conversations with visitors. Having this exhibit in a museum traditionally focused on human artwork begs the question of where human art should be shown if its spaces are being taken over by AI. Perhaps, if AI museums are going to be adopted moving forward, adding spaces for them, rather than infiltrating already existing museums, is a way to protect human art, as well as allowing for the creation of AI art.

The creation of Living Museums and 360-degree viewing is not new, as it might be implied by media promoting Dataland. There are plenty of museums that have used human art and technology to create museums where you are able to step into artwork. Fabrique des Lumières in Amsterdam is a digital ode to some of the greatest pieces of artwork without the use of AI. The experience is highly immersive with viewers being able to move into different rooms, music and the constant changing of the artworks being shown to them. Even though it does not interact with the viewer, use their data or have scent headsets from L’Oréal, it does still provide a meaningful and modern way of viewing artwork, making it accessible and interesting for anyone without the use of AI. Ethically, the exhibition makes steps in the right direction with the use of the Large Nature Model (LNM) replacing models trained on the Large Language Model. This means that the museums art does not plagiarise work of human artists, one of the key issues with typical data models, and so avoids any copyright issues which AI typically falls into. Dataland is also making a conscious effort to reduce its environmental impact by being hosted entirely on a Google Cloud in Oregon, which uses 87% renewable energy, drastically reducing the museum’s carbon emissions.

The experience is highly immersive with viewers being able to move into different rooms, music and the constant changing of the artworks being shown to them. 

The way Dataland uses AI could highlight ways that AI usage could be regulated. However, there is still a long way to go; there is no mention of water usage on the museum’s website, suggesting they are still polluting a vast amount of water to create their artwork. Dataland seems to be successful in utilising AI to create constantly evolving art and an interesting viewer experience. However, due to its lack of human involvement, it is doubtful that it has any real impact apart from highlighting impressive tech advancements. There are also issues with the environmental impact of an AI exhibition aiming to bring us closer to nature without taking a real stance against climate change. Even though Dataland has made huge strides towards using AI in an ethical way, it is likely that it is similar to the “AI slop” that is available to us on our phones every day, as the same programs are used to create both. Even though living museums like Dataland are a wonderful way of bringing art to modern audiences, there are plenty that exist already using human artwork which are also worth checking out.