How a Lionel Messi goal became an epic AI art installation

Here in Buenos Aires, Lionel Messi appears in probably more artwork than any other living person, from giant murals to the 3D-printed statue on the colourful Caminito in La Boca. But Christie's in New York has just auctioned a much more high-tech immortalisation of Argentina's living legend.

Refik Anadol’s A Goal in Life doesn't seek to capture Messi in paint or resin but in data and biometric signals. Aiming to recreate the experience of a single goal, it pushes the boundaries of AI art as a representation of sensations (for more on the current state of AI in creative fields, see our AI in Focus week).

In collaboration with Inter Miami CF, Anadol asked Messi to choose his favorite goal from his career to date. From the more than 870 he's scored for clubs and country, he chose his header for Barcelona against Manchester United in the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final.

Anadol’s team then set about recreating that moment. They created nine AI algorithms, including a motion-tracking framework that mapped seventeen points of Messi’s body to reconstruct his physical form and kinetic expression. One of the scenes has 3.2 million tracking points. Messi's voice data, breathing rhythms and heartbeat patterns were also tracked, while an emotional algorithm was created using input from interviews.

"We had to take this two dimensional memory, captured from different angles, and reconstruct the movement itself in three dimensions," Anadol says.

The result is an immersive eight-minute 16K-resolution visual portal and soundscape inspired by the footballer's physical and emotional state at the moment he scored the goal. Anadol describes the piece as the 'art of going back in time and space' via a 'memory temple' that invites the viewer to give themselves up to the moment to experience a visceral connection with Messi and with their own memory of a legendary sporting moment.

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The work was auctioned yesterday for around $1.9m. Proceeds from the sale of A Goal in Life will go to various nonprofits, including Inter Miami CF Foundation’s partnership with UNICEF.

Anadol's piece is a reminder that the concept of 'AI art' is a lot broader than just text-based image generators like Adobe's amusing Fantasy Premier League logo generator. Going back to the 1960s, there's a long tradition of digital artists creating their own bespoke machine learning algorithms to create artworks influenced by data. See our piece on the history of AI art.