Worlds Within

Particles of light dance to create ephemeral forms that depict the formation of our celestial souls.

Worlds Within explores the aesthetics of the invisible as part of the artist’s ongoing research of light in motion. As various forces influence more than 500,000 particles in real time, a dynamic “stardust sculpture” emerges, each reflecting a spirit’s unique personality through forms such as swirling currents, dancing flames, glowing filaments, and neural pathways.

Building upon the use of organic form in Bubble Blobby, evocative color in Glow, and meditative motion in Light Beams, Worlds Within additionally simulates simple yet beautiful phenomena in the natural world like gravitation and chromatic aberration to reveal how hidden forces on the micro scale affect the whole in surprising ways.

Worlds Within is inspired by Cai Guo-Qiang's pyrotechnics, Thomas Wilfred's kinetic light art, and outer space phenomena. Drawing on these influences to create a unique visual aesthetic, Worlds Within gives the viewer a glimpse of the intangible: the stark black background disorients the viewer's perception of setting, scale, and dimension—much like James Turrell’s immersive light works—and draws attention to the center of the frame, where something mysterious and beautiful emerges.

Shortcuts

• q: toggle quality to lower resolution (default is high)
• m: toggle rendering mode to time-based rendering, some frames may be skipped (default is frame-based rendering, every frame is rendered)
• mouse click + drag: rotate view
• spacebar: pause/resume
• s: save screenshot

Note: requires a WebGL2-enabled browser and a decent GPU.