Video installation, audio-play (15:50min) developed on the basis of Measuring Infinity, STRATAGRIDS’ contribution to K. Klingan et al. (eds.): Grain, Vapor, Ray: Textures of the Anthropocene, Revolver Publishing, Berlin; MIT Press, Cambridge, MA and London 2014.
The audio-play can be accessed here.
How to measure the immeasurable? According to physicists, 95 percent of the universe consists of dark matter and dark energy, phenomena that cannot be observed, only indirectly traced and described. This paradox serves as a point of departure for a performative inquiry involving a careful staging of tools and techniques for measurement: a sonic diagram, a computer simulation, a video animation. A point of gathering for thinkers and viewers alike, akin to an infinite bonfire in the darkness of space. The Millennium-Simulation, a computer simulation of the universe developed at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching (Germany), is an attempt to shed light on the supposedly powerful and yet imperceptible entity that is dark matter. It exists as a parallel, virtual universe, a programmed copy of the existing one, including its beginning and entire lifespan to date.
Measuring Infinity. A Test Arrangement unfolds as a conversation set around a paradoxical situation of the imperceptible, yet simulate-able and animate-able. Akin to a continuous bonfire, the animation of the Millennium-Simulation as a hologram, provides an appeasing and enlightening hub of concentration for the protagonists.
