A Belief Demanded Beyond Comprehension: An Inquiry into Dark Matter by Su Wen-Chi

"We do not know what dark matter really is, but one thing is for certain – without it, we would not even exist."

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the universe is composed of approximately 27% dark matter, 68% dark energy, and only 5% normal matter, with which we are familiar. Dark matter is impossible to observe directly because it does not emit, absorb, or reflect light. However, scientists indicate that dark matter constitutes the "cosmic skeleton" and is thus presumably essential for supporting the formation and movement of galaxies. Governments and research institutes have invested extensive human and financial resources to prove their proposed theories.

For example, the United States Department of Energy invested as much as 90 million US dollars to finance 71 physics research projects in 2021, whilst the Science and Technology Facilities Council announced plans to invest 60 million British pounds to support particle physics research. Similar experiments are being conducted in Italy and China. Although no significant breakthrough has been made so far, despite worldwide efforts in various research projects, observations through gravitational lensing and galaxy rotation curves help verify the existence of dark matter.

The Riddle of the Universe and Its Solvers

Dark matter is like an invisible friend – omnipresent yet elusive to human touch and sight. Why does it continue to fascinate us? It poses a philosophical challenge to human beings: should we believe in what cannot be directly observed? Can our grasp of knowledge, evidence, and reality help us understand and trust the essence of the universe – something that lies inherently beyond the scope of our understanding?
Choreographer and new-media performer Su Wen-chi takes the exploration further: is dark matter a riddle posed by the universe? She once used jellyfish as an intriguing metaphor to explain dark matter: "We tend to believe only what we see with our eyes, but dark matter is like the air around us or water surrounding jellyfish – you do not feel its existence directly, but it means everything. If you were a jellyfish, you would not even know that you were surrounded by water, because you lived in it, just like how we are related to dark matter."

In her previous work, Black Hole Museum + Body Browser, the artist investigates the didactic relationship between VR's sensory experiences and physical bodies. She reflects on how the body, in both its subjective and objective senses, lives and moves in the virtual imagery, paving the way for her later practices dedicated to dark matter research. In 2025, Su travelled to Melbourne with her dancer and VR team to conduct artistic research for Sensing Dark Matter, and the trip even included a visit to the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL) in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 2002 and located 1 km underground, SUPL is the largest scientific research institute in the Southern Hemisphere tasked with probing and studying dark matter in the universe.

Ambiguous Yet Intriguing 

Dark matter's movement influences the interlinked dynamics between planets, inspiring Su's artistic exploration through virtual reality. She notes that "VR as an artistic practice provides visual and sensory situations through the 'real' to see the 'virtual,' allowing invisible dark matter to be transformed and visualised." As a response, her Sensing Dark Matter reimagines the science behind the universe and constructs a speculative reality which employs virtual reality and spatial audio techniques to create deeply immersive experiences.

A blend of interactive installations, objects, VR, choreography and visual arts, Sensing Dark Matter received high acclaim from The Age for its performance abroad: "Sensing Dark Matter is gorgeously rendered, but it's also a suggestive allegory for human perception. We see only a few glimmers of light, but from these minimal cues, we construct vast worlds, imagining far beyond what is immediately visible. It's a short journey, only 17 minutes, but what a heck of a trip." The work was also highly praised by the audience, who were surprised by the emotions it evoked, apart from the stunning and striking sensory experiences generally felt – "the application of VR techniques allows dark matter to be perceivable, bringing the body to the next dimensional level."

Dark matter, with its invisible presence, may trigger humans' fear of the unknown. Through exploring dark matter, however, we may learn to face and accept "the reality beyond control," delving into the depths of the inner self which have never been reached before. Such is the function of art – following the traces left by the universe to reach an essence truer than truth, we will eventually come to an understanding that human beings are as vast and vital as the universe.