Go ‘Beyond the Light’

What to know before you step foot inside this incredible exhibition

From a sea of stardust to a holographic look into the future, the multi-layered  cinematic installation at the core of Beyond The Light exhibition (within our Immersion Gallery) weaves a compelling narrative. It traces our evolving relationship to light from primordial times through beyond what we could have ever envisioned. With 13 distinct scenes, this 26-minute audio-visual odyssey intricately explores the historical tapestry of light,celebrating the unyielding spirit of exploration and discovery that propels humanity beyond the confines of the visible world.

The History

Scene 1: Primordial Wave: Experiencing Light Solely Through Our Body 

Stardust, the microscopic matter originating from stars we are all made from, begins the scene. We explore our early civilization through ancestral dreams. Our ancestors unknowingly communicated into the future by recording their observations on the cave walls. We imagine what the cave drawings might have looked and felt like through our ancestors’ minds, who observed the vibrancy of the stars in the sky free of any human pollution.

Scene 2: Mystical Observatory: Experiencing Light Spiritually 

Built on centuries of observations, our cosmic understanding evolves. Multiple theories and universe models create an ever-changing tapestry of recorded knowledge throughout numerous civilizations yet to be connected. As we immerse ourselves in diverse theories of light, creation myths, theological ideas, and cosmological calendars, we embark on a profound journey to spiritually experience the essence of light.

Scene 3: Prism: Experiencing Light Intellectually 

As we evolve methods of studying our environment, we start to experience light intellectually. Discovering the beginnings of the electromagnetic nature of light and inventing optics to augment the limits of what our eyes can see. In the 1660s, Issac Newton discovered light was composed of seven visible colors -a visible spectrum.  

Scene 4: Schematics: Starting to Experience Light Through Advanced Engineering

In the dawn of a technological revolution, advanced engineering emerged as the gateway propelling us into uncharted realms. Schematic tapestries of light and knowledge up to the 1980s from around the world display the inner beauty of the machines and inventions that expanded our frontiers of discovery.  

Scene 5: Starting to Explore Light Outside Our Biosphere 

Mission control is visualized as towering pillars of illuminated knowledge and discovery. Key moments of the 20th century flicker to life in analog film reels. This scene launches us into the Age of Space Exploration.  

Scene 6: Gateway: Into the Age of Space Exploration

No longer bounded by the ocean or sky – we launch fearlessly into discovering the unknown oceans of the universe.  The electromagnetic hum of the universe is visualized into cinematic kaleidoscopic stars and planets, lighting the way to undiscovered territories. An explosion of refractive light wavelengths signifies the transition to the digital era.

Age of Space Exploration: Covering 1980s to Now Into the Light Beyond

Scene 7: Telemetry: Experiencing Light Through Data. 

This scene expresses the vast transmission of telemetry – how NASA receives data from all the instruments in space. NASA processes over 13TB of data daily.    

Scene 8: Hubble Images Fly Through: The First Space Telescope.

Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has remained at the forefront of astronomy, exploring a wide range of astrophysical phenomena. From our Solar System to star formation, planetary systems, exoplanets, galaxies, and the mysteries of the high-redshift universe, it continues to unravel the origins of life itself.

Images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope:

While we can rarely perceive the speed that space is traveling and it often appears still, it is in fact incredibly dynamic. The animation created by ARTECHOUSE Studio conveys this reality.

Scene 9: The Mechanics of Modern Science: Experiencing Light Through Machines. 

This scene celebrates our technical infrastructure of discovery at the microscopic level. Machines of incomprehensible complexity drive advances that burst beyond conception, alluding to our race to the next generation of computing – quantum.

Scene 10: Unveiling the Universe’s Developmental Phases Through Light

Scene 11: JWST Images Fly-Through: Experiencing Distant History Through Light.

Designed to capture infrared light as far back as 13.6 billion years ago, the data JWST collects over the next decade will give us a new understanding of how galaxies, stars, and planets formed in the early cosmos and potentially end our “cosmic loneliness” by discovering life beyond Earth.  

The following images were curated by the James Webb Space Telescope Project/Mission team to represent the scope of JWST’s work so far. They were then brought to life in dynamic motion by ARTECHOUSE Studio:

Scene 12: The Light Beyond: The World of Quantum.

We go into the impossible microscopic level to explore the concepts of quantum foam, topological soliton, and glimpses of string theory. Finding the universe’s missing mass and solving what feels like impossible questions will be achieved by mastering quantum physics and mechanics to go beyond the extraordinary distance our digital (binary) invention has brought us. The fast cutting of the scenes elicits a feeling of space and time distortion.

• Quantum Foam 
• Gravitational Waves / Topoloigical Soliton
• String Theory 

Scene 13: Earth: Our Home.

Earth emerges against the universe’s hidden tapestry – the ethereal cosmic web, elusive dark matter, and uncharted depths of the missing mass. In this captivating question of what is beyond, we anchor our every experience back to our home – Earth.

Original Score:

Mehmet Ünal Studio created an entirely novel digital soundtrack using the spectra data of the periodic table. This data. validated by a physicist, formed the foundation for a new auditory experience. The team developed new software and tools to synthesize and compose with the new sound, and incorporated AI-aided generated sound elements into the composition. 

Listen to a snippet here: