Everything from Here to Infinity, 2016
VR experience for Oculus Rift
"Everything from Here to Infinity" is an immersive virtual reality installation in which objects within the most comprehensive map of the universe to date, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, are depicted in the manner of abstract expressionist gestures.
This project is inspired by the surrealist writer Jorges Luis Borges’ short story, On Exactitude in Science, in which an empire made a map of itself so big – it encompassed the entirety of the empire itself. A metaphorical equivalent to the Borges’ tale, which speaks to the zeitgeist of our big data era, but also to the abstraction of our reality at cosmological scales, is the SDSS. It is the most comprehensive map of the universe to date and represents 100 terabytes worth of data about every heavenly object from here to infinity.
A random sample of 10,000 stellar objects is pulled from the database (Data Release 13) to be visualized at any given time. The user can navigate the entirety of the map starting from the Milky Way to the cosmic light horizon, which is approximately 13.8 billion light years away, ultimately terminating with a barrier comprised of an image of the cosmic background radiation.
IMAGES
VIDEO LINK
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Alex M. Lee is an artist who utilizes 3D animation, video game engines, extended reality platforms, machine learning and the potential of simulation technologies in order to investigate contemporary modes of representation, artifice and technical images - culling from concepts within science, science fiction, physics, philosophy, and modernity.
Born in Seoul, Korea and grew up in the United States of America, he received his BFA (2005) with emphasis in Photography and Digital Imaging and MFA (2009) with emphasis in Art & Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is Assistant Professor of Animation at Arizona State University's Herberger Institute for Design the Arts with Affiliated Position at Mesa City's Media and Immersive eXperience Center.
Lee has exhibited internationally in North America, Europe and Asia. Selected exhibitions include: Gallery Hakusen, Tokyo, Japan; Mio Photo, Osaka, Japan; Gallery DOS, Seoul, Korea; Daegu Art Factory, Daegu, Korea; Eyebeam: Center for Art & Technology, New York, NY; LEV Festival, Madrid, Spain; Paris/Berlin Recontres Internationales; Elektra International Digital Art Festival, Montreal, Canada; New Images XR Art Fair, Paris, France.
The artist is represented by Vtape.org
If you are interested in exhibiting or viewing this artistic VR experience, please send an email to us.
CATEGORIES