One Kilometer Underground: An Adventure in Reconstructing the Senses.

Written by Stella Tsai Photos courtesy of YILAB

Following her artistic exploration of black holes to reimagine gravity and physics, new media artist Su Wen-Chi started a three-year research project on dark matter after meeting scientists dedicated to its study in Australia in 2023. Last year, she returned to Australia with her team, where they visited the underground dark matter laboratory and learned about the principles of dark matter from the scientists there, whilst also physically perceiving the presence of dark matter. The cinema-like adventure began as the team donned full safety gear and boarded an off-road vehicle, descending one kilometre underground into the depths of the earth.

Interviewees | Creative Team of Sensing Dark Matter
Concept, Choreographer: SU Wen-Chi

Dancer: TIEN Hsiao-Tzu

VR Design: HSIEH Wen-Yee

Scenography: CHANG Huei-Ming

Sound Design: WU Ping-Sheng

Q: The field trip was described as "surreal." Can you talk about your artistic residency at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory from your respective perspectives?

SU: The Physics Laboratory is located about one kilometre underground in a gold mine, and it took us around 30 minutes to drive there. The entire space is built inside a tunnel with extremely high humidity. Even though we were wearing full safety gear, we could directly feel the smell and hear the sounds of the space.

TIEN: When we first boarded the vehicle, I had the illusion that we were going on an adventure park ride. But as we were descending deeper, my bodily sensations grew stronger. It was winter in Melbourne, so it was cold on the surface, but when we went underground, it was hot, humid, and enclosed, triggering a vague sense of fear. You knew you were going down, but you could not reorient yourself logically. Plus, every time we went there, we stayed for about eight hours. The contrast between "staying indoors" and "staying in an underground cave" created a surrealistic sense of being.

CHANG: Although we felt like an adventure team on a mission, the drive down to the underground laboratory was already intense, filled with unavoidable thoughts of danger and the unknown.

HSIEH: The scientists at the laboratory helped us understand dark matter better through various explanations and analyses of the evidence. From black holes in our previous project to dark matter in this one, it was my first time learning about it from a scientist's perspective and trying to bring together the two invisible forces in the universe.

SU: In addition to learning how scientists discovered (or proved) the existence of dark matter, each team member carried out observations and sensory experiments based on their own specialisations. For example, TIEN and I conducted improvised bodily exploration within the cave, trying to sense the humidity, temperature, and sounds of the space. HSIEH reconstructed the tunnel and laboratory by scanning them three-dimensionally, whilst Ping-Sheng captured the shape of its sound field through sound waves. The work we did in the underground laboratory will be transformed into Sensing Dark Matter, with its new-media reconstruction that invites the audience to join the adventure with us.

WU: The laboratory we visited is actually located inside an active gold mine, situated one kilometre below sea level. The entire visiting team was essentially transported down in the manner of miners, each person strictly following regulations by wearing a helmet, steel-toed boots, and an emergency breathing mask. Though a vertical distance of one kilometre may not sound far, it took nearly 30 minutes to reach the site. The descent felt like a winding mountain road heading continuously downward. Along the way, we lost all sense of direction, passed by enormous mining vehicles, and drove through waterfalls. Inside the cavern, the humidity was like a steamy chamber where vapour never dissipated, filled with the noise of machinery, the fumes of diesel exhaust, and clusters of rocks radiating heat close to body temperature.

Q: What is "dark matter?" How should we understand it?

HSIEH: According to the scientists, the universe would have fallen apart at the current spinning speed of galaxies, but dark matter is the invisible support that prevents this from happening. It is like jellyfish living in water but unaware of the existence of water. We are all surrounded by dark matter. It is invisible, but it undoubtedly exists.

SU: To put it simply, dark matter consists of particles that are difficult to observe and impossible to see directly. It does not interact with light, so it escapes human vision. It rarely interacts with other particles either, but it significantly influences the motion of the universe.

TIEN: It is like when many things happen, and you are not sure why – they just do. Dark matter is something you don't actually see, but it does exist.

CHANG: It seems like a rational, scientific research topic when you first hear about it, but come to think of it, it is very romantic – everyone is pursuing something they don't see but know is real. Dark matter is not the unknown; it is simply unseen.

Q: What experiences can the audience expect from Sensing Dark Matter?

HSIEH: I used two different spatial scanning methods to fully document the entire journey. The audience will begin as observers as if they were descending into the cave with us, followed by the part where they enter the sensor and become the particle to be observed. Finally, they will become part of the spiralling universe and be propelled by an invisible force.

SU: We try to bring the audience "into" the cave as well as into the situation when we descended into the laboratory. Reconstructing the space with technology, it allows the audience to hear and to see what we actually experienced there, whilst they can even walk into the sensor to "see" what should be invisible.

TIEN: I still remember how the rock-walled, high-ceilinged laboratory, along with the changes in temperature and humidity between inside and outside, immediately triggered my body to intuitively react to dark matter. The body is tangible, whilst dark matter is intangible, so we take the body as a starting point to measure and visualise an imagination of dark matter. Sometimes it is concrete, whilst sometimes we use VR techniques to highlight its illusionary nature.

SU: The core of performing arts relies on the sense of feeling. In Sensing Dark Matter, the dancer is not required to execute movements, but to embody an imaginary conversation with scientists through the body, in response to a world that is invisible but really exists.

CHANG: In addition to using VR to activate multiple senses, we have added "scent" to the space – a herbal aroma locally sourced from Taiwan and commonly used in medical care institutions or nursery homes – as a way to relax the audience, open up their senses, and smooth the journey for them.

SU: The purpose of Sensing Dark Matter is not only scientific and educational, but also a reconstruction of the senses. We bring the imagination of dark matter as well as the reflections on humanity from both artists and scientists into the project, trying to offer different narratives that may encourage the audience to open up their senses a bit more and expand their understanding of dark matter.

Q: Has the creation of Sensing Dark Matter in any way influenced your ideas about art or your philosophy of life?

SU: Spending years exploring the encounter between arts and science, I have come to realise that humans are not the centre of the world. When we talk about the creation of matter and the universe, we need to let go of human-centred thinking. For me, it is spiritually broadening. It is like how my understanding of the "here and now" in theatre was fundamentally challenged when scientists told me that the stars we see are actually light from tens of thousands of years ago. In performing arts, we focus on communication in the here-and-now, but when measured on the scale of the universe, the idea of "here and now" can be redefined and reexplored.

HSIEH: My previous VR works mostly start from a human-centred perspective, before gradually bringing the audience into an imaginary world. This time, in addition to reconstructing the journey we experienced, we also shift the perspective, allowing the audience to become particles or even enter the centre of the spiralling force, where they can bodily perceive an imagination proposed by scientists.

CHANG: Artist residencies are not only about outward exploration but also the development of inner perceptions. Apart from the meditation video SU showed us during the flight, I tried floating meditation in Australia. Both outward and inward sensory experiences opened up my imagination of the invisible world, as they reminded me of the presence of many different things surrounding us that we have yet to become aware of.

SU: For me, dark matter also represents an insistence on the unknown. Scientists invest significant time and resources experimenting and observing a particle whose existence has yet to be proven. As artists, we also act within the unknown. Neither of our actions is driven by what we know, but by what we believe is waiting to be discovered.

WU: At the scale of the universe, human beings appear small and insignificant—an insight one might expect to encounter only in outer space. Yet this realisation emerged deep underground, seeping into every pore. What was striking was that, within such an immense contrast, the feeling was not one of oppression but of awareness being released—expansive and unbounded.