Refik Anadol - Dataland Website Design and Development

Design and development for institutions is in our agency’s DNA. We feel duty-bound to be the best digital partner for the world's most culturally inspiring and collaborative organizations. So when we were recommended to Refik Anadol Studio for their most ambitious project yet, it felt like a natural fit. We were thrilled to be tapped to strategize, design and develop the digital ecosystem for Dataland.

Dataland is the soon-to-open, flagship immersive museum by world-renowned artist Refik Anadol. It’s a physical space in Downtown Los Angeles where art is generated in real-time using data. It transforms audience members from passive viewers to active participants, sometimes even integral components of the art’s creation. As audiences journey through the museum's five distinct gallery rooms, data derived from their interactions powers the stunning, large-scale AI data sculptures and visualizations that define Refik’s work to-date.

In essence, Dataland is a next-generation cultural institution, and its digital platform is the connective tissue that links the physical experience to a lasting, personal and ownable digital one. So, let’s break the project down.

We were initially brought in to architect the Dataland digital ecosystem and have been immersed in it ever since.

Our directive was clear: create a future-proof digital platform as innovative and alive as the art itself. This meant designing systems for ticketing, memberships, and e-commerce for both physical and digital goods. The core task was to conceptualize MyDataland—a personalized dashboard that would serve as the living archive of a visitor’s unique journey.

On a deeper level, the ask was about partnership. Charting a course for a project with a moving end-target required unique flexibility. This type of multi-stakeholder collaboration is common in the institutional work that forms our agency's DNA, and it demanded a collaborative, ego-free spirit to navigate the project's many contingencies. It’s exactly the kind of work we love.

Over 18+ months, our Dataland engagement encompassed discovery, concept and narrative building, sitemapping, wireframing, interaction design, prototyping and development—all leading toward a phased launch of the platform.

Embracing the unknown, we began by exploring how to reinvent best practices for a new kind of museum. We didn't just want to build a website; we wanted to answer the question: how can a museum create a lasting digital artifact for its visitors? The centerpiece became MyDataland, a space where a visitor’s lived experience inspires deeper connection. We tinkered, we learned, we played, and through many iterations, we workshopped UX and UI that could translate data into a beautiful, personal artifact.

The technical architecture was the project’s heaviest lift. Our design and development teams worked in lockstep, thinking and creating unilaterally. Our developers were brought in early to advise on feasibility, thinking beyond their immediate brief to forewarn the design team of any watchouts and ensure a smoother path to launch. This co-learning process, built on a foundation of mutual understanding, allowed us to architect a complex ecosystem of services—ACME, Shopify, Stripe, Coinbase and Google Cloud—all orchestrated by a central Django backend.

The Dataland digital ecosystem has Use All Five’s fingerprints all over it, and the platform we’ve architected is a testament to a fruitful collaboration built on patience and mutual respect.

The once-abstract goals for ticketing, membership and e-commerce now have a concrete technical and strategic path forward, readying RAS for their grand opening. We successfully translated the visual and written elements of this visionary project into living, breathing code.

When an institution has worked with us once, they almost always return, and Refik and his team are a group that we hope to grow alongside of for a long, long time. 

Anyone who’s seen his pieces can testify to his brilliance and vision, but only those who’ve collaborated with Refik can truly understand his zen, matter-of-fact, kind, inspiring and gentle nature. It’s no surprise that Refik’s trajectory seemingly requires monthly recalculating. 

We look forward to watching, and helping, as Dataland comes closer and closer to opening.