Zurich/Dubai, 27 January 2023 – As part of Julius Baer’s NEXT initiative, Refik Anadol Studio will embark upon a groundbreaking journey to create a series of multisensory artworks based on an enormous dataset of glacier images from around the world. The topic was chosen by the AI artist as a global symbol of an elixir of life and the fragility of the world. The artwork ‘Glacier Dreams’ will unfold in multiple chapters and locations. The first chapter will be presented as an immersive room at the Julius Baer lounge during Art Dubai from 1 March to 5 March 2023.

Refik Anadol will process a dataset of visual materials from online and institutional archives along with additional personally collected glacier visuals through machine learning algorithms. Anadol’s unique artistic vision as an internationally acclaimed media artist, director and pioneer in the aesthetics of data and machine intelligence, will come to surface as he transforms the processed dataset into AI-based multisensory narratives. The audio-visual, immersive artwork will have an olfactory component that was created with a pioneering artificial intelligence model.

Refik Anadol said: “As an artist creating AI data paintings and sculptures based on nature-themed datasets for almost a decade, I am very excited to be taking my studio’s research to the next level by compiling a comprehensive visual dataset on the glaciers of the world. With this large-scale project and the consequent artwork, we are hoping to not only generate poetic glacier-themed experiences, but to also use our existing AI tools to contribute to glacier research and raise awareness about climate change and rising sea levels.”

In December 2022, Julius Baer launched NEXT, which is supported by Serpentine, London, as an initiative designed to foster collaboration between forward-thinking artists and institutions committed to new forms of cultural production at the vanguard of scientific research and technological development.

For more information on the NEXT initiative: www.juliusbaer.com/en/spotlight/next