The goal of The Infinity Boxes is to playfully explore human perception and social interaction. When we “lean in” to the experience Matt Elson offers us, we are surrounded by a dreamlike shift in our perception. Using color, light and mirrors, optical illusions are created that envelope the viewer when we peer inside.
Opening Reception for The Infinity Boxes
At first the boxes draw us in with their odd beauty; they catch our attention and we can’t help exploring. As we get closer they seem more strange and intriguing. When we venture to interact with – and in – the boxes, we find our experience becomes even less comprehensible. 
It is an essential part of the experience that we view them with others. The Infinity Boxes are social by design. Each box is only “active” when the available windows are filled by a person. Elson describes these encounters as a new, contemporary form of portraiture that is in tune with social media: “Typically two people will walk up, look in from each side, put their heads in the box, be surprised/get happy, then spontaneously take out their phones, photograph each other and publish those pictures via the web.” Sharing the views inside the box with each other, followed by the sharing that takes place on social media, have become integral elements to the whole experience.
Some of the box encounters cannot be photographed successfully because the unique 
image exists solely inside our head. When each eye is receiving a different input, the brain must assemble these separate parts into an entirely new image. In these cases the image is never the same twice, and cannot be photographed to reflect what we saw. While this is natural to human experience, we are generally unaware of it happening. The Infinity Boxes seek to create self-awareness of the process of seeing. As we experience our sense of sight in a whole new way, Elson wants us to be fully aware of the “presence” of the moment.
- The Infinity Boxes will be on view in the Ferrari Gallery at the Carnegie Arts Center from July 31 – August 21, 2016.
- Admission is $8 general, $5 students/seniors, free for members.
- Gallery Hours: Weds. – Sun. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Fri. 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Matt Elson, a native of Modesto, is a pioneering and award-winning artist who has worked in the high end of 3-D computer graphics since graduating from the Pratt Institute in 1982, working with Walt Disney Feature Animation, Dreamworks Feature Animation, Magnet Interactive Studios, The Post Group LA, and Symbiotics, Inc. In 2005 he returned to making fine art and developed the first of The Infinity Boxes between 2007-11. During the past two years The Infinity Boxes have been on display at the Science Museum of London, the Cotsen Children’s Library at Princeton University, NJ, The Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA, the Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, NY, and the Art Prize Fair in Grand Rapids, MI. Following this presentation at the Carnegie Arts Center, The Infinity Boxes will return for a fifth time to the annual Burning Man Festival in Nevada.
Leave a Reply