Black Sea: Data Sculpture

Like Studio Drift, Refik Anadol’s art centres on the intersections of art, technology and nature. Anadol’s mesmerising and immersive Black Sea: Data Sculpture explores the relationship between simulation and reality, and the human desire to create stories that mediate our perceptions of how we make sense of the world. 

From Anadol’s website: “‘Black Sea’ is a kinetic data sculpture that explores the organic interaction between representation and reflection. Using high frequency radar collections provided by Turkish State Meteorological Service of the Black Sea, this piece aims to highlight the symbiotic interplay of technology, art, and nature in relation to humanity’s quest to push the limits of possibility. Our modes of representation and inquiry become a part of our natural world, reflecting and augmenting our perceptions of reality. In our quest for resolution, stories offer us a simulated environment that are in fact just as real as nature itself. The transformation of this sea surface data collection becomes then not just a means of visualizing information, but rather a transmutation of our desire for understanding into a poetic experience.”