This AI data painting is based on a raw dataset of millions of photographs captured by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) telescope that can be found in the public archives. In order to process such vast data, a custom algorithm was created and programmed to “hallucinate” synthetic landscapes of the Martian surface, triggering our imagination about a place that is not yet familiar, but we continually set out to explore and understand.

The creation process for Machine Hallucinations – Space | Chapter II: Mars (Generative AI Data Painting) can be found here:

Machine Hallucinations – Space | Chapter II: Mars (Generative AI Data Painting) invites the audience to reflect on the relationship between technology, AI, and space explorations by viewing how the machine intelligence hallucinates after “seeing” millions of space images taken by the MRO telescope.

Machine Hallucinations: Space is an-going AI research of data aesthetics at the RAS Lab based on collective visual memories of space. Since 2016, Anadol and his team have been using custom algorithms to train machine intelligence in processing these vast datasets and unfolding unrecognized layers of our external realities. Below is a selection of works from the Machine Hallucinations series created from 2016 to 2021.