On July 23 in St Tropez, mental health initiative MYND presented Sense of Healing: AI Data Sculpture A by new media artist Refik Anadol at Aurora Institute’s inaugural Evening of Discovery event. Sense of Healing is the largest neurotherapeutic AI data sculpture in the world, as well as the first artwork produced at this scale using human brain data.

The work was commissioned to be presented first at Evening of Discovery and then at auction at the fourth annual LuisaViaRoma x UNICEF Summer Gala in Capri on July 30, 2022. Twelve NFTs were sold at Evening of Discovery for €120k each, raising more than €1.4M in proceeds going towards charitable mental health initiatives such as Klitschko and Kevin Love Fund. The AI data sculpture, Sense of Healing, was sold at UNICEF’s Summer Gala for a record-breaking €1.7M, raising over €3M for UNICEF’s charitable programmes.

The software-based artwork emerged from Refik Anadol Studio’s long-term research into creating meditative art based on neurological data compiled through MindMaze technologies, and precipitated the creation of a series of NFTs from the main work. The work lies at the intersection of neuroscience and design to visualise fundamental questions about the architecture of the human brain with the most cutting-edge data visualisations tools available. Anadol and his team interpreted datasets of brain activities collected with EEG sensors, fMRI and DTI imagining techniques to create a multisensory immersive artwork and to promote mental health through art.

Sense of Healing marks the first iteration of an ongoing collaboration between artist Refik Anadol, Therme Art, and MYND—the joint venture between neuroscience pioneer MindMaze, wellbeing industry leader Therme Group, and impact investment initiative Impact One. The collaboration reflects MYND’s mission to increase mental health awareness and accessibility through art and cultural productions.

Utilising transdisciplinary creative research, development and production, the joint project aims to rethink current approaches toward mental health, wellness and wellbeing on a global level. In harnessing the power of the latest advancements in data capturing, neuroscientific research, quantum computing and spatial development, we believe this relationship will allow us to collectively approach contemporary issues of mental wellness in new and innovative ways.

About Refik Anadol

Refik Anadol (b. 1985, Istanbul, Turkey) is a media artist and pioneer in the aesthetics of machine intelligence, and the director of Refik Anadol Studio in Los Angeles. Anadol is also a lecturer and researcher for UCLA’s Department of Design Media Arts from which he obtained his Master of Fine Arts. A leader in his field, and the first to use artificial intelligence in a public artwork, Anadol’s site-specific audio/visual performances have been featured at iconic landmarks, museums, and festivals worldwide, including Walt Disney Concert Hall, Hammer Museum, Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Artechouse, The Centre Pompidou, Daejeon Museum of Art, Florence Biennale, Venice Architecture Biennale, Art Basel, among many others.