In a bold nod to the digital age, MoMA has integrated its first-ever NFT, a masterpiece by the visionary artist Refik Anadol, showcasing the evolution of art in the digital era.
New York’s prestigious Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has set a landmark by adding an NFT to its enduring collection, courtesy of the forward-thinking artist Refik Anadol. The piece, named “Unsupervised–Machine Hallucinations”, exemplifies how Artificial Intelligence can be harnessed to reimagine and craft art, drawing inspiration from the museum’s extensive archives. This avant-garde addition to MoMA was facilitated through the generous contributions of Ryan Zurrer, via 1OF1, and Pablo and Desiree Rodriguez-Fraile, through the RFC Collection.
Anadol’s creation, which has graced the museum’s exhibit since the previous year, employs open-source software tools to sift through, categorize, and organize the data from MoMA’s vast collection. What emerges is a multi-dimensional portrayal of the museum’s artistic legacy, rendered in a staggering 1024 dimensions. This piece is not just a contemplation on the nexus of technology and art but also offers a glimpse into how machines might perceive and reinterpret over two centuries of artistic expression.
Anadol, whose endeavors have revolutionized the digital art realm, designed this work to evolve in real-time, perpetually generating novel images and patterns. Moreover, the artwork responds to specific environmental cues from MoMA’s Gund lobby, such as shifts in lighting, movement, and external weather conditions, resulting in an ever-evolving artistic experience.
Pablo Rodríguez-Fraile, the driving force behind the NFT initiative at MoMA, underscored the significance of this acquisition, marking a defining moment in contemporary art history by introducing the first tokenized artwork into the museum’s permanent collection. Alongside Desiree Casoni, Rodríguez-Fraile has amassed a remarkable art collection in RFC Art, challenging traditional notions of art collecting.
This pioneering acquisition aligns with the recent unveiling of the MoMA Postcard Project, an initiative aimed at fostering collective creativity on the blockchain, inviting the public to engage and collaborate using cutting-edge Web3 technologies.