IXI

2020

Fine Art / Digital Art / Virtual Reality

About
“ixi”, “IXI”, “ixi‘“,”IXI‘“, “ixi””, “IXI“” are sculptures as walkable, virtual spaces. The sculptures are built by translating always two hyper-spaces into one 3-dimensional virtual object. The hyper-spaces are part of current (2020) research into the „theory of everything“; physicists‘ search for a unified theory, which describes why and how the universe and everything within it works. Each hyperspace represents one possible mathematical outlay of our universe. Byrke Lou uses always two of these hyper-spaces to build one virtual space. The two hyper-spaces are translated into two 3-dimensional objects and animated to morph slowly from one object to the other over the course of 12 hours. Over the following 12 hours the morphing reverses. As a result the virtual space can be re-visited at different times of the day and will show different shapes at different times. Which model is the correct one? Or does the truth lie anywhere in between?
The music the works soundscape is based on was the first officially released music („bayes“ by Byrke Lou) using a new algorithm for AI sound synthesis developed by Google in 2020.

Experience
The transparent space is rendered visible only through the light reflected on its surface. ixi’s slowly morphing shape, incrementally changing light situation and AI-generated soundscape can be experienced in virtual reality. The visitor’s body can take the form of a customised avatar and visitors can talk to and engage with fellow visitors. The algorithmic composition and AI synthesised sounds build a dreamy, abstract sonic field, which guides the visitor through the space. Through portals other spaces can potentially be accessed.

Why
“ixi’s” hyper-spaces stem from current research into the theory of everything, which would explain the fundamental rules our universe operates on. ixi reflects on the question of how we conceptualise and construct virtual and physical space.