ARTIST REFIK ANADOL ENVISIONS
The struggle for skin to maintain its optimal condition lies in the unseen. Led by a miraculous intelligence. One that detects stimuli. Recognizes the difference between positive and negative. Feels, thinks, decides, and acts by itself, independent of the brain. This is Skin Intelligence. This is the Science of Clé de Peau Beauté.
We commissioned trailblazing digital artist Refik Anadol to envision skin's unseen intelligence on a grand scale. Exhibited in Tokyo's Roppongi Midtown 28 June–2 July 2023, the artwork UNSEEN INTELLIGENCE was displayed to the public, coinciding with a global event dedicated to The Science of Skin Intelligence.
UNSEEN INTELLIGENCE Panel A: AI learning Skin Intelligence and responding to UV and pollution data.
UNSEEN INTELLIGENCE Panel B: Radiance levels-up. AI responds to positive data (our clinical and customer results), mimicking Skin Intelligence's response to Clé de Peau Beauté skincare.
Refik explains, “Our collaboration with Clé de Peau Beauté is based on a unique analogy between Skin Intelligence and artificial intelligence form the perspective of ‘making the invisible visible’ – a vision that we have been pursuing since the foundation of our Studio. This is similar to how we use neural networks to reach a heightened understanding of human patterns, aesthetic choices, and sensations.
Clé de Peau Beauté scientists study life forces that are invisible – the unseen networks of our largest ‘thinking’ organ, skin."
The data narrative is presented on two digital canvases, in dialogue.
One receives negative stimuli: publicly available weather data including indices and levels of UV and pollution – both of which are external aggressors known to cause skin damage.
This data has been collected from major urban centers such as Tokyo, New York and London.
The other transforms negative into positive: AI trained to reconstruct the data set into beautiful light refractions and radiance using Clé de Peau Beauté’s efficacy testing, which measures improvements from the use of our products.
Standing between these two universes is to witness a dialog between the physical and virtual, skin intelligence and machine intelligence, art and science.
Shaped from huge swaths of data, the invisible becomes visible.
The phenomenon within everyone’s skin, now ours to witness for the very first time.
©Serge Hoeltschi
About Refik Anadol
Refik Anadol (b. 1985, Istanbul, Turkey) is an internationally renowned media artist, director, and pioneer in the aesthetics of machine intelligence. Residing at the crossroads of art, science, and technology, Anadol’s AI Data Paintings and Sculptures, live audio/visual performances, and immersive installations take varied virtual and physical forms.
A pioneer in his field, and the first to use artificial intelligence in a public artwork, he has partnered with teams at Microsoft, Google, NVIDIA, Panasonic, NASA/JPL, Intel, IBM, Siemens, Epson, MIT, UCLA, Harvard University, Imperial College, Stanford University, and UCSF. Anadol's works are unparalleled in their field and have been exhibited at prestigious venues worldwide, including the Centre Pompidou-Metz, Venice Architecture Biennale, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.