Alex M. Lee

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.

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Alex M. Lee is a digital artist who utilizes 3D animation, game engines, and the potential of simulation technology in order to visualize and abstract our understanding of time, space, and light - culling from concepts within science, science fiction, physics, philosophy, and modernity. He received his BFA (2005) and MFA (2009) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is associate professor in the Digital Arts & Sciences Program at Clarkson University located in Potsdam, NY - a private science and engineering university located north of the Adirondack Mountains where he divides his time between Potsdam and New York City.

 

Lee has exhibited internationally as well as within the States. Selected exhibitions include: Mio Photo, Osaka, Japan; Daegu Art Factory, Daegu, Korea; The Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, Illinois; Eyebeam: Center for Art & Technology, New York, NY; Gallery DOS, Seoul, Korea; Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal, QC. His work has been published in articles covering art, science, and culture including: Metaverse Creativity, Canadian Art, and Routledge Press.

 

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.

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