Available on Oculus AppLab at https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/3367089710082568/

Inspired by Carl Sagan, Star-Stuff: a way for the uni­verse to know itself is an immer­sive expe­ri­ence cre­at­ed to remind imm­er­sants of their fun­da­men­tal con­nec­tion to human­i­ty and the Universe. This hybrid VR art­work brings two people togeth­er remote­ly or in a co-present instal­la­tion. In both cases, the aim is to give users a new per­spec­tive on them­selves, human­i­ty, and the Universe. It is a rela­tion­al art­work which cre­ates “free areas, and time spans whose rhythm con­trasts with those struc­tur­ing every­day life…” (Nicholas Bourriaud, 2002)

Floating in space, your hands are trans­formed into a myriad of con­stel­la­tions while stars emanate from your heart, orbit­ing your body in a mes­mer­iz­ing cosmic dance. Moving and play­ing with the stars, you form a galaxy unique to you and your move­ment. Looking close­ly you can see the stars live out entire lifetimes—being born, expand­ing as they grow old, and col­laps­ing into bright flash­es of super­novae. Time seems to stand still as eons flash by in this med­i­ta­tive experience.

Another person joins the expe­ri­ence, flick­er­ing into view in the form of anoth­er con­stel­la­tion. The grav­i­ta­tion­al effects of your bodies draw your stars towards each other, form­ing a new col­lab­o­ra­tive and dynam­ic sculp­ture in the night sky as you play and dance togeth­er. Star-Stuff affords the impos­si­ble expe­ri­ence of not only being a galaxy but meet­ing one too. By refram­ing the body in a shared aes­thet­ic this unique expe­ri­ence encour­ages imm­er­sants to see them­selves and others in a common light, as “star-stuff” brought to life, free of super­fi­cial char­ac­ter­is­tics that divide and bias us.

Following an intu­itive and reflec­tive process, my aim was to create a trib­ute to Carl Sagan’s Cosmos which inspired to my own curios­i­ty to under­stand our place in the Universe. Likewise, I hope to inspire others to see under­stand­ing the Universe as a way to better under­stand our­selves. It is not only a process of sci­en­tif­ic inquiry but one of philo­soph­i­cal and spir­i­tu­al dis­cov­ery. Looking out to the stars allows us to see deeper inward. In the same way Star-Stuff simul­ta­ne­ous­ly shows imm­er­sants the stars’ life­cy­cles while giving them a med­i­ta­tive space to dis­cov­er them­selves and see strangers and friends in a new light. My hope is that those who expe­ri­ence it come away with a glimpse of the fun­da­men­tal con­nec­tion which we share not only with each other, but with the Cosmos from which we are born. “We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself.” (Carl Sagan, 1980)

Music: Dale Nichols

Upon Return

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/2TusNQY0e1Wxg61f2WNrIy?si=5d7d386cc33b4b64
• Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/upon-return/1576354271?i=1576354276

Gravity + Sleep

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/2qZ3QpNRvIJcpdaQfxgNvS?si=e4a89062f5374a3c
• Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/gravity-sleep/1539244380?i=1539244718

Media Gallery

[mediatags]project–star-stuff[/mediatags]

Screenshots John Desnoyers-Stewart CC BY-SA 4.0. Last image of some­one inter­act­ing while facing the camera Marc Yungco © Kreis Immersive, 2021. All other photos by Julia Read, 2021 CC BY-SA 4.0.

Publications and exhibits