Want to be a part of an AI art installation? A new Los Angeles museum does more than display AI-generated art. DATALAND can use a visitor’s heartbeat, movement and location to alter the images, sounds and atmosphere unfolding throughout its galleries.
DATALAND opened June 20 inside The Grand LA in downtown Los Angeles. The 25,000-square-foot venue describes itself as the world’s first Museum of AI Arts and presents artwork that continuously changes.
Its inaugural exhibition, Machine Dreams: Rainforest, spreads across five multisensory galleries. It uses ecological information and visitor interaction to generate rainforest-inspired environments rather than displaying a fixed collection of digital images.
Visitors can choose to wear an optional Data.Link biosensor. The device anonymously registers signals including heartbeat, movement and spatial position before sending them to the museum’s central computing system.
Your heartbeat becomes part of the soundscape
Embedded media follows. Please allow a moment for it to load.
View this post on Instagram
Inside the Data Pavilion, heartbeat readings become sonic patterns while sounds change according to visitors’ movements. Eighty-four synchronized projectors cover the room in more than 700 million pixels, accompanied by a 200-channel sound system.
The museum says participation is optional and the readings are anonymous. Visitors can save a record through Data. Token and the DATALAND app. Otherwise, the information is automatically removed after the visit.
Five galleries turn rainforest data into art
DATALAND’s Large Nature Model draws from more than 1.2 billion ecological data points and live information from rainforests around the world. That material becomes changing visuals, natural soundscapes, and scents created with L’Oréal Luxe.
The Latent Gallery lets visitors draw with an AI “Thinking Brush” or move through Fluid Pigments. The Sanctuary combines participants’ biometric responses into a continuously changing 30-foot data painting.
Tickets start at $49
Machine Dreams: Rainforest remains on view through Jan. 31, 2027. DATALAND is located at 100 S. Grand Ave., across from Walt Disney Concert Hall and near The Broad and the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Tickets start at $49, and you can reserve timed entry through the museum’s official ticket page. DATALAND recommends allowing about two hours for a visit, and it is open Tuesday through Sunday.