Empatica Announces Partnership with DATALAND, the World’s First Omni-Sensory Museum
Empatica
• 12 min read
Co-written with DATALAND and collaborating partners
Boston, MA, and Los Angeles, CA — Empatica, a pioneer in digital biomarker development and patient monitoring using wearables and AI, announced its collaboration with DATALAND, the Museum of AI Arts, opening June 20, 2026, at The Grand LA in Downtown Los Angeles, creating a custom version of EmbracePlus, its FDA-cleared wearable medical device, for consumer use exclusively within the museum.
Co-founders Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkılıç reveal further details of DATALAND, the Museum of AI Arts. Representing a paradigm shift in the museum-going experience, Anadol and Erkılıç unveil Data.Link, an intelligent system connecting art, architecture, and audience through advanced AI systems, real-time data assimilation, integrated technologies, and wearable devices. Made possible through collaborations with NVIDIA, Google Cloud, Founding Olfactory Partner L’Oréal Luxe, Epson, L-Acoustics, Empatica, LG Electronics, Gensler, ARUP, Scaleable, Valerie Confections, and Constellation Immersive, an affiliate of Creative Artists Agency (CAA), DATALAND emerges as the world’s first omni-sensory museum.
“For 5000 years, humans have been emotionally moved by artworks, but the relationship has always flowed in one direction,” stated Anadol. “While developing DATALAND, we asked ourselves, ‘Is it possible for artworks to feel us back?’ We dreamed of a place where audience and artwork could merge, creating a feedback loop of collective emotion. Through collaborations with extraordinary innovators and technologies woven directly into the architecture itself, that dream has now become reality.”
“Collaborating across disciplines has always shaped how we think and create; it is inseparable from our way of being,” said Erkılıç. “Our own practice emerges from the convergence of art, science, and technology – a collaboration of complex intelligences to develop a collective memory based on shared knowledge. At DATALAND, we honor that complexity by highlighting the many minds, processes, and intelligences that have been animating our vision for years.”
The building as medium
Designed in collaboration with award-winning architecture and design firm Gensler, engineered by Arup, and supported strategically by Constellation Immersive, DATALAND was conceived as a new model for twenty-first century cultural institutions. Advanced technologies are integrated directly into the building’s walls, ceilings, and floors, allowing the architecture itself to become an active participant in the experience.
Powered by NVIDIA, DATALAND developed Connectome, a centralized high-performance computing system that acts as the neural center of the museum, enabling every installation to process and respond in real time. For Machine Dreams: Rainforest, Connectome integrates live ecological data from rainforests around the world, the Large Nature Model AI system, and biosensing input from visitors’ wearable devices to form the computational foundation behind the experience.
Created by Refik Anadol Studio, the Large Nature Model (LNM) is the world’s first open-access AI multi-modal based solely on nature data. Hosted entirely on Google Cloud infrastructure in a low-CO2 compute zone in Oregon, operating on 87 percent carbon-free renewable energy, the LNM uses roughly one smartphone charge to reiterate the artwork for every visitor. This reflects DATALAND’s commitment to building intelligent systems that expand the possibilities of art while minimizing their environmental footprint.
Touch that responds
DATALAND’s partnership with Empatica – a global leader in digital health and wearable technology – allows visitors to connect directly to the building and the artwork through a custom consumer version of EmbracePlus, Empatica’s FDA-cleared wearable biosensing device. Originally designed for clinical and research settings to capture physiological signals that support healthcare and advance the understanding of disease, EmbracePlus was customized exclusively for DATALAND with software and algorithms that enable real-time data streaming.
Through anonymized measurements including heart rate, skin temperature, and electrodermal activity, Data.Link translates visitors’ physiological signals together with live environmental data into a language the Large Nature Model can interpret as emotion. The LNM responds in kind by reshaping what visitors experience; a machine dream that is not pre-programmed, but a living dialogue between art and audience. The collaboration also reflects Empatica’s approach to wearable technology design, where clinical-grade devices are developed with the wearer in mind. Comfort, usability, and seamless integration into daily life are prioritized alongside scientific performance to support engagement, adherence, and high-quality physiological data collection.
DATALAND is committed to responsible data collection. Visitors may opt out at any time before, during, or after their experience. Captured data remains anonymous unless voluntarily claimed through a My.Dataland account. Visitors may delete their data at any time. No data is ever shared with third parties, and all unclaimed data is automatically erased after 30 days.
An omni-sensory collaboration
Across five galleries featuring more than 1.5 billion pixels, DATALAND combines Epson projection technology, LG Electronics displays, custom LED environments, and Scalable’s advanced imaging systems to create immersive visual experiences, including the Infinity Room’s fully enclosed three-dimensional LED cube. L’Oréal Luxe, DATALAND’s Founding Olfactory Partner, co-developed a first-of-its-kind scent journey inspired by the world’s rainforests, delivered through innovative wearable scent devices that create individualized olfactory experiences for each visitor. Sound is powered by L-Acoustics’ 250-speaker L-ISA immersive audio ecosystem, blending rainforest acoustics, original compositions by Kerim Karaoğlu, and the sacred healing songs of the Yawanawá into a dynamic soundtrack that evolves in real time. Inside the Latent Gallery, Valerie Confections collaborated on Data.Chocolate, a limited-edition edible artwork translating cacao and Amazon rainforest datasets into a four-piece tasting experience.
A building that learns and remembers
Anadol’s art practice has long since held the question, “If a building can learn, can it dream?” DATALAND’s inaugural exhibition Machine Dreams: Rainforest offers an affirmative answer. An epic journey across five galleries, Machine Dreams: Rainforest is an ambitious redefinition of what art can be in the age of machine intelligence. Developed by Refik Anadol Studio’s collective of artists, scientists, architects, and engineers, the exhibition redefines the museum as a site of continuous production, where art is no longer presented as a finished object but unfolds in real time through the dynamic interplay of data, computation, and human presence. Machine Dreams: Rainforest will be on view from Saturday, June 20, 2026 to Sunday, January 31, 2027.
Standard access tickets with Priority access for premium experiences go on sale this Thursday, May 14, at 10AM PT at www.dataland.art. Ticket prices are subject to change.
Empatica Inc. is a pioneer in continuous, unobtrusive remote health monitoring driven by AI. Empatica's FDA-cleared platform and technology are used by thousands of institutional partners for research purposes, in studies examining stress, sleep, epilepsy, migraine, depression, addiction, and other conditions. Its flagship medical wearable, EmbracePlus, has been developed with key partners including HHS, USAMRDC, and the NASA-funded TRISH. Its latest device, EmbraceMini, is the world’s smallest actigraphy device for use in clinical care and research, and was recently FDA-cleared for sleep activity monitoring. Empatica is also a global leader in patient-centric wearable epilepsy monitoring.
DATALAND is the world’s first Museum of AI Arts and digital ecosystem where human imagination meets the creative potential of machines. DATALAND’s flagship Los Angeles location has five galleries across 25,000 square feet of public space with an additional 10,000 square feet of space that houses the museum’s advanced technologies. Situated at Frank Gehry’s The Grand LA, DATALAND unites pioneers across multidisciplinary fields including the arts, science, and technology under the artistic leadership of Refik Anadol Studio. Opening on June 20, 2026, DATALAND joins the renowned visual and performing arts institutions in the city’s Grand Avenue Cultural District including The Broad, LA Phil, MOCA, The Music Center, REDCAT, and The Colburn School. DATALAND’s mission includes serving as a public repository for large-scale nature-focused data sets, providing online access and learning platforms, and collecting and exhibiting artworks by digital and AI artists. In October 2025, DATALAND established an artist residency program in partnership with Google Arts & Culture to support creatives working with machine intelligence. DATALAND is designed in collaboration with award-winning architecture firm Gensler and engineered by global built environment consultancy Arup. Aspiring to set the standard for the presentation, curation, and exploration of AI Arts, DATALAND embodies a new model for cultural institutions in the 21st Century.Website: www.dataland.art; Socials: @datalandmuseum
Established in 2014 by Refik Anadol, a pioneer in the aesthetics of data and machine intelligence, and artist and entrepreneur Efsun Erkılıç, the Los Angeles-based Refik Anadol Studio produces enthralling and immersive media art intended for anyone, any age, and any background. The award-winning studio has been engaged by leading tech companies, groundbreaking researchers, and cutting-edge thought leaders to produce projects that have been shown in more than 80 cities spanning six continents, and experienced by millions of ardent fans. In taking the data that flows around us as the primary material and the neural network of a computerized mind as a collaborator, Anadol and his team paint with a thinking brush, offering us radical visualizations of our collective memories and expanding the possibilities of interdisciplinary arts. Refik Anadol Studio comprises artists, architects, data scientists, engineers and researchers from diverse professional and personal backgrounds, embracing principles of inclusion and equity throughout every stage of production. www.refikanadolstudio.com
