About this episode:

As AI and robotics advance at breakneck speed, are we on the verge of crisis — or the brink of a new kind of understanding?

In an era of vanishing ecosystems, will machines help us feel what we’re losing — or simply record the moment it disappears?

Could a neural network truly remember a forest, or dream of one burning?

In this episode, Refik Anadol joins us for a rare, deeply personal conversation on the future of creativity, the ethics of artificial intelligence, and the role of the artist in an age defined by urgency, acceleration, and imagination.

We speak about his concept of cognitive environments, how data has become a material for memory and meaning, and why he believes light is a divine medium. From creating large-scale immersive works like Glacier Dreams and Living Archive: Nature, to collaborating with the Yawanawá people of the Amazon, Anadol shares what it means to build honest, impact-driven practice in the age of climate crisis and machine learning.

We explore why he refuses traditional art-world boundaries, what he learned from gathering over half a billion images of nature, and why he sees AI not as a threat, but as a mirror - one that reflects back the best or worst of humanity, depending on how we shape it.

The conversation ends on a note of cautious optimism: for Anadol, this moment of technological transformation is nothing less than a new kind of renaissance a one that calls not only for innovation, but for responsibility, transparency, and a deeper commitment to healing, both planetary and personal.

The Speaker:

Refik Anadol (b. 1985, Istanbul, Turkey) is an internationally renowned media artist, director, and pioneer in the aesthetics of data and machine intelligence. He is the Director and co-founder of Refik Anadol Studio in Los Angeles and teaches at UCLA’s Department of Design Media Arts from which he obtained a Master of Fine Arts. Refik Anadol Studio brings together a globally diverse team of designers, architects, data scientists, and researchers—originating from 10 countries and fluent in 15 languages—who share a deep commitment to inclusion, equity, and cross-cultural collaboration at every stage of artistic production. Anadol is also the co-founder of Dataland, the world’s first Museum of AI Arts.

''As Above, So Below'' is a collaborative podcast season between ZEITGEIST19 and One Ocean Foundation, focused on biodiversity and ocean conservation and planetary well-being.

Hosts: Farah Piriye & Elizabeth Zhivkova, ZEITGEIST19

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