The End & the Beginning of Everything is a set of sculptures, videos and prints emerging from computer simulations of supernova explosions made in collaboration with the FLASH Center for Computational Science at the University of Chicago and the Advanced Computing Center for Arts & Design. The project symbolically explores the complex network of forces and concerns giving rise to these simulations― from the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty to efforts to understand how the building blocks of planets and life were created― and their relationship to the techno-romantic sublime.
Shane Mecklenburger’s projects investigate simulation, conflict, romanticism and manufactured value. His videos, sculptures, performances and multimedia installations examine cultural and technoscientific systems of exchange, investment and desire. His work has exhibited at The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Bitforms Gallery, NYC; Eyebeam, NYC; Dallas Museum of Art, Texas; Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona; Übersee-Museum, Bremen, Germany; The Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; The El Paso Museum of Art, Texas; California College of Art, San Francisco; El Centro Cultural Paso Del Norte, Juarez, Mexico; and Antena Gallery, Chicago. He received an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University Department of Art and the Advanced Computing Center for Arts & Design.
This project was made possible by a Battelle Endowment for Technology and Human Affairs which fosters programs that examine the complex relationship between science and technology and broader social and cultural issues. Additional production support provided by the Charles Hayden Planetarium, Boston; Columbus College of Art and Design Canzani Gallery; Massachusetts College of Art and Design; and the University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. Special Thanks to Michael Goodson, Don Q. Lamb, Brad Gallagher, Jason Fletcher, Zachary Weinberg, Ian Ruffino, Rick Winn, Elean yang, Josh Messmer, Matt Tackas, Joseph Webster, Kate Buttino, Niko Dimitrijevic, Dan Weisman, Benjamin Jones, Nora Zuniga-Shaw, David Weinberg, The Ohio State University Department of Astronomy, The Advanced Computing Center for Arts and Design, and the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago.
