<i>Jeweled Net of the Vast Invisible: An Experience of Dark Matter</i>

Jeweled Net of the Vast Invisible, an Art and Science collaboration funded by the University of Michigan MCubed seed grant program, will run April 8 - 10 at the Duderstadt Video Production Studios. The team is comprised of Greg Tarlé (Department of Physics) Steve Rush (School of Music, Theatre and Dance), Jim Cogswell (Stamps School of Art and Design), Brian Nord (Fermilab) along with graduate students Jason Eaton (Computer Science) and Simon Alexander-Adams (Music, Theater, and Dance). 

Jeweled Net is a visualization of the distribution of dark matter in the universe, based on data from a massive billion-particle computer simulation. As we travel through this space we see structures - halos, voids and filaments, which owe their existence to minute quantum fluctuations when the universe was first launched. These structures, amplified by inflation, propagated by sound and intensified by gravity, formed the invisible net that captured the matter that made up the first stars, galaxies and galaxy clusters, the “jewels” that we see as we look out on the universe today. Heavy elements forged in these stars became the raw ingredients from which our sun, our planet and life came about. We are children of the stars, literally, made of stardust created and ejected into the interstellar medium many billions of years ago. And yet this net of dark matter is invisible to the eye. Its existence can only be inferred by studying the galaxies and stars that decorate this vast invisible net. Scientists see this beauty and stand in awe of the grandeur of our universe. 

The installation at the Duderstadt Center will feature a continuously running multi-channel video projection. A twenty-foot high, 180-degree panorama and acoustic environment will immerse the viewer in the vast jeweled spaces and sonic structures derived from the billions of data points simulating the distribution of dark matter. This MCubed team was formed in the hope that through art we could bring the awesome wonder that scientists experience in their study of our universe to a broader group of people. To make the invisible both visible and audible to our senses.

For more information about this exhibit, please click here.