Supported by Decentraland DAO, Edge Studies is a solo show of Aaron Huey featuring the powerful, uncanny images he captured at the edges of Decentraland, Minecraft, Somnium Space, Voxels, and VRchat.

"Have you ever wondered about the furthest edges of the metaverse? What are virtual worlds’ wildest virtual territories, and how do we access them? Virtual spaces seem to follow the logic of the flat earth theory, the misconception of Earth's shape as a plane or disk. Developers and communities design central buildings and events apart from any boundary. Reaching the edges of a metaverse means exploring what hasn't been planned and what has been ignored. In 2021, American documentary photographer Aaron Huey started examining these uncanny spaces in worlds like Decentraland, Minecraft, Somnium Space, Voxels, and VRchat – a quest we reveal in Edge Studies.

Photographs and videos from the edges, documenting falls or the nature of underworlds, inhabit this exhibition. Huey recalls the memorable places he found and his countless expeditions. “In some, it was quite simple. In others, I had to walk for hours”, he explains. “I documented these literal edges that fell off into the void and, when possible, jumped off them. Eventually, I realized I could fly off worlds without resetting and go into an in-between space below. I began capturing the unseen folds and transparent skeletons of worlds meant to remain unseen.”

Seeing what happens when you reach these uninhabited places reveals the artificial nature of virtual space. Here, where the boundaries appear, the essence of simulacrum becomes clear. We observe the unveiling of Maya's veil or Plato's myth of the cave: by discovering these places’ fictiveness, we can understand their mechanisms and how they work.

In "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" by Edgar Allan Poe, arriving at the edge of the known world means experiencing a context in which natural elements such as water, sky, and wind become total, filling our senses until the individual disappears. Images and videos witness a similar process, where the avatar is overwhelmed by atmospheric agents."

(Marie Chatel, curator)