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Virtual Visions is an exhibition of computer generated prints. These are virtual photographs of imaginary worlds densely populated by surreal shapes and spaces, generated entirely with software written by Mike King and colleague Richard Wright. The objects are both organic and mechanical, non-human and yet human in their appeal, and are bathed in a surreal light that is both familiar and strange. King is interested in the metaphysics of the digital domain, in particular with what he calls the 'prior given' of space and light. He points out that light was essential in the growth of science, in the use of the telescope and microscope, and has also brought us to the 'end of science', the paradoxical world of modern physics. 'There is no escape,' he says, 'The physics of light brings the subjective back into science: through the wave/particle duality, quantum mechanics, and the ultimate physical absurdity of the invariance of the speed of light. It is invariant with respect to you, as an individual. You are back in the picture.' Whatever the metaphysics of space and light Virtual Visions explores their fundamentals with an exuberance and a dynamic of composition that draw the observer into them. King is Reader in Computer Art and Animation at London Guildhall University, where he has run a Master's degree in the subject for many years. He has exhibited his images nationally and internationally, and also publishes research articles relating to his work. The software used for the exhibition is called 'RaySculpt' and has been evolving for the last fourteen years. A major component of it, the ray-tracer, was kindly donated by Dr Richard Wright after working for a period as Research Fellow at IBM Winchester. By writing and developing his own software King can explore a personal aesthetic that is hard to pursue with proprietary packages. RaySculpt runs under Windows on a domestic PC, often taking overnight to complete a single high-resolution image. King's ideal would be to create the virtual spaces in real time, but this would take a machine some 200 million times faster than current PCs.
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