During a brief pause in a years-long renovation that began in 2023, the Smithsonian’s iconic red sandstone Castle hosted an immersive light and sound installation by Refik Anadol. The project, Smithsonian Dreams, was projected onto the façade of the building for two hours, starting at 9 PM, on Friday and Saturday evenings last week.
A Smithsonian spokesperson estimates that approx. 20,000 visitors settled onto the mall over the course of both nights to experience the multisensory project.
Smithsonian Dreams, like Anaol’s breakthrough project Unsupervised, mines an institution’s archives and uses generative AI to transform the archival data into a colorful, mesmerizing visualization. In this case, Anadol’s custom AI system pulled from nearly two centuries’ worth digitized manuscripts, photographs, artworks, scientific records, and specimens found in the Smithsonian’s sprawling collections held by museums, libraries, and research centers.
“For me, data is a form of memory,” Anadol said in a statement about the project. . . . Smithsonian Dreams 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.”
Smithsonian Dreams kicked off a month after Anadol’s controversial AI museum, Dataland, opened in downtown Los Angeles. Check out some photos of the two-night public art initiative below.
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The Smithsonian’s ‘Castle’ opened in 1855
Image Credit: Photo Jeremy Norwood/Courtsey Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
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The red brick building was designed by James Renwick, Jr. and is on the south side of the National Mall
Image Credit: Photo Jeremy Norwood/Courtsey Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
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Anadol’s Smithsonian Dreams mines millions of digitized items from the Institution’s collections
Image Credit: Photo Jeremy Norwood/Courtsey Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
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Anadol’s custom visualization system uses a UMAP (Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection) algorithm
Image Credit: Photo Jeremy Norwood/Courtsey Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
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Smithsonian Dreams was projected onto the Castle facade on July 17 and 18
Image Credit: Photo Jeremy Norwood/Courtsey Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
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Anadol’s project asks what would happen “if the Castle itself could learn from its collections”?
Image Credit: Photo Jeremy Norwood/Courtsey Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
