Beyond the Macrocosm:
A Virtual Reality Experience

Beyond the Macrocosm is an exploration into the possibilities and impossibilities of virtual space. Inspired by the illusory work of M. C. Escher, the project asks if the creation of virtual worlds can be used to visualise the intangible and the complex, and illustrate beyond what we know to exist.

In this animation, Escher’s Other World (1947) is reimagined as a seamlessly transitioning animation with multiple worlds and perspectives.

The composition, which has three different skies, terrains and series of objects that each exist within their own set of physics, are all mapped around one single camera trajectory and required a non-Euclidian rendering technique.

Inside the hand-held metallic sphere, it is possible to see the reflection of a figure standing in the archway. The figure is standing where the camera (or viewer) is.
The same Escher-inspired structure is captured in this looping animation from the perspective of someone outside looking in. In another metallic sphere, floating figures can be seen interacting with the virtual space through each archway.
The animations were adapted into a VR experience that allowed the viewer to interact and experience the structure as if they were part of the animations.

The use of reflection in the virtual composition is to embody the theory that Ori Gersht, an Israeli lens-based artist and photographer, proclaims: the further from the physical reality you go, the closer you come to the virtual reality. The viewer could stand in the same spot where the virtual reflection takes place in the first animation.

This then asks: does the viewer become the figure in the reflection? If the reflection inside the VR experience is only validated by the user in the virtual world, which reality is the real one? The person inside the reflection or the person inside the VR experience?

© Alastair Vanes         London, United Kingdom