
Multiverse is an audiovisual installation that explores the potentially infinite evolution of universes through generative visuals and sounds. Inspired by the theory of the so-called ‘multiverse’, formulated by the American theoretical physicist Lee Smolin, the work builds on the idea of an interconnected and infinite system of universes that coexist outside our space-time. With this focus, the installation weaves together a succession of real-time generated digital paintings, reinterpreting the eternal cycle of death and rebirth of parallel universes.
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In Multiverse, the role of "creator" belongs to the software: developed in openFrameworks, the application manages the real-time generation of the various scenes displayed and interacts with Ableton Live and Max/MSP to produce the piece's soundtrack through a generative sound system. Inspired by our visit to the CERN and seeing the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator, the sound design has been developed starting from the recording of glass marbles colliding with one another and with various objects. Later, the recordings were edited through audio manipulation and assembled in a real soundtrack alternating hushed, muffled tones with intensely piercing and sharp notes.
Visually, each digital picture represents a stage in the evolutionary path of a multiverse evolving according to a series of key passages theorized by Smolin. In particular, we started from the assumption that the gravitational collapse of matter does not end in a singularity of a black hole but gives life to a so-called child-universe. While the physical laws of the simulation remain the same every time these events occur, there are minimal random changes in the values of the parameters of the physical laws during the bounce, which leads to the origin of a new universe with slight differences in its fundamental properties.


The particle simulations that are shown to the viewer are born through the creation of an ad-hoc simulated environment that allows us to experiment with different motion rules and a digital setting. Particularly, the particles react with each other and with the surrounding space, changing the information perceived by modifying a vector field that stores the values within a voxel space. The strategy involved the massive use of shader programs that maximize the hardware performance and optimize the graphics pipeline on the GPU.
Each scene, however, does not repeat itself in the same form. After thirty minutes, the previous sequence of steps carrying the genetic information of the last passage triggers an evolutionary transition and the exploration of new possibilities through the modification of the so-called fundamental parameters. The generative nature of the system allows the creation of infinite variations that cyclically follow one another during the life of the artwork.





Multiverse is an artwork by fuse*
Artistic Direction, Executive Production: Mattia Carretti, Luca Camellini
Concept: Mattia Carretti, Luca Camellini, Samuel Pietri, Riccardo Bazzoni
Software Artists: Luca Camellini, Samuel Pietri
Sound Design: Riccardo Bazzoni
Hardware Engineering: Matteo Mestucci
Produced by fuse* and BDC - Bonanni Del Rio Catalog
Video Report by Matteo Torsani
Photo Report by Emmanuele Coltellacci
Festival Filosofia, Modena (IT)
Bonanni Del Rio Catalog, Parma (IT)
