Hasta La Ideas

Light projected into a mirrored room creates seemingly infinite patterns in this installation by Turkish artist Refik Anadol, at this year’s SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.

For the Infinity installation, Anadol took over a cube-shaped room that sealed so no openings could be detected.

Projectors in the centre of each wall were programmed to work together – displaying light patterns that appeared to span across all four surfaces.

The artist installed mirrors on the ceiling and floor so that these moving images were reflected infinitely.

“Light is the major element in the experiment, used to blur and interconnect the boundaries between the two realms: actual/fictional and physical/virtual,” said Anadol.

“It signifies the threshold between the simulacrum space created by the projection technology, and the physical space where the viewer stands.”

The lighting sequence lasts around 12 minutes, during which time the visitor can occupy the space however they chose.

However the effect is best experienced when lying on the floor, as demonstrated in short films that show a visitor entirely surrounded by the projections.

Infinity forms part of Anadol’s Temporary Immersive Environment Experiments series of audio-visual installations, and was first created for the 40 Meters 4 Walls 8 Cubes exhibition – a project set up in 2015 by curatorial platform Artnivo in collaboration with the Istanbul Biennial art fair, at the city’s Zorlu Performing Art Center.

“In this project, ‘infinity’ [was] chosen as a concept [as] a radical effort to deconstruct the framework of this illusory space,” said Anadol.

“[It] transgress the normal boundaries of the viewing experience, to set out to transform the conventional flat cinema projection screen into a three-dimensional kinetic and architectonic space of visualisation by using contemporary algorithms.

The South by Southwest (SXSW) festival and conference took place from 10 to 19 March 2017.

Also during the music, film and technology event this year, sales of high-tech micro dwellings were launched, a touch-sensitive denim jacket was unveiled and a driverless electric car concept was announced.

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