Mahagenta, 2017
Bolshoi Cosmological Simulation #2 was installed for visitors to view. The left inset shows an interior view and the right inset shows visitors for scale.
Interior view of glow-in-the-dark beads in the blackout tent.
This maquette, Bolshoi Cosmological Simulation #1, is made of welded steel and beads on invisible thread. This was the first physical manifestation of project planning.
This project resulted from conversations with astrophysicists Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz and Joel Primack at University of California Santa Cruz and the Theoretical Art Science Fellowship. The work was later influenced by butoh dancer Mas Busrok whom I ideated alongside and performed with at traditional and cutting edge performance spaces Sangaar O and Mahagenta in and near Bogor on the idland of Java in Indonesia. It attempts to create an scaled and walkable installation of galaxies suspended in cosmic dark matter. Mahagenta —or, “big place” — here is suggested as a method for understanding implications of the Bolshoi Cosmological Simulation.