Gallery goers taking in the exhibition. Dan Hudson, The Infinite Cave (detail) 2015-2022, Multimedia installation.--SUBMITTED PHOTO FROM COLLECTION OF DAN HUDSON
This winter, the Esplanade presents The Infinite Cave, one of the most significant multimedia installations of the 21st century.
This immersive digital experience, created by Canmore-based artist Dan Hudson, showcases an extensive, broad spectrum of humanity as well as the power and beauty of the natural world.
Powered by the contemporary vehicle of social media culture through a digital installation of 164 monitors, The Infinite Cave is a meditation on the nature of experience and how we, as a species, relate to each other and the world around us.
Globally, there are more than 150,000 new videos uploaded to YouTube every minute. Over the last seven years, Dan Hudson has compiled over 500,000 video clips sourced from social media posts shared by people from around the world.
The Infinite Cave visually articulates a multicultural map of human experience. Designed to continuously evolve and change, the installation will create a unique experience during each of the 60 days it will be on exhibit.
The piece is comprised of three digital components: “The Sun,” “The Earth,” and “The Moon.” The Earth component features the 162 monitors and is based on the ancient idea of the four elements (fire, earth, water and air). At the centre of the concentric arrangement is fire, featuring videos of volcanoes, forest fires, and explosions.
The imagery moving outward represents earth, featuring people and animals, followed by water and, on the outermost monitors, air.
“The narrative content in The Infinite Cave is seductive and engrossing,” says Hudson. “But the collective whole of this project asks big questions about who we are and our place in the universe.”
The conceptual foundation of this project developed in reaction to the rise of post-truth within the ethos of the internet. Post-truth is the idea that people are less influenced by factual information than by their emotions or beliefs they already hold.
Hudson explains, “Thumbing through social media posts on our devices is part of a contemporary reality. Through a series of stages, each individual post connects the reality of the person recording the content with the reality of the person viewing the content. The millions of such interactions happening each day form an ever-expanding web of reality.”
This immersive digital experience is sure to be one of the most unique contemporary artworks anyone will experience in their lifetime. It envelops the psyche, overwhelming our visual and intellectual capacity while beckoning us to surrender to the overstimulating digital construct, which leaves us contemplating the simultaneous complexity and simplicity of modern human perception.
The Infinite Cave is on now until April 15, 2023.
Xanthe Isbister is Director/Curator, Galleries and Collections at the Esplanade
