First Look: Space Explorers: The Infinite Is a VR Trip Through the International Space Station

"That was freaking awesome! If that doesn't make you want to go to space, I don’t know what will."

That's what one visitor exclaimed while exiting Space Explorers: The Infinite, an immersive experience at Stanley Marketplace.

"I think it replaces my desire to go," quips Charlie Miller, executive director and curator of DCPA's Off-Center program, which collaborated with Infinity Experiences, Felix & Paul Studios and PHI Studios to bring the installation to Denver. Miller says he's been a "big fan" of outer space since he was a kid.

"I remember learning about Einstein's theory of relativity in seventh grade and trying to wrap my head around what that meant," he says after the enthusiastic attendee walks away. "I remember being fascinated by the scale of it all. There's a psychological phenomenon called the overview effect, which is when you see the view of Earth from space — and being able to approximate that in a way that feels real without paying Jeff Bezos a million dollars is an exciting opportunity. I feel the power of that, and I've heard so many people who've talked about how moving that is."
After captivating more than 300,000 audience members in Montreal, Houston, Seattle and San Francisco, Space Explorers: The Infinite is now in Denver through May 5, presenting a look into astronauts' daily lives aboard the International Space Station (ISS) with a VR twist that offers 360-degree views of Earth.

"The Infinite is a one-of-a-kind experience that reveals the many wonders of space exploration," Miller explains. “I’m thrilled that our adventurous community will...experience The Infinite before it goes on to tour the country.”

The experience begins with viewers shedding their earthly belongings in provided lockers so they can freely wander through a staged cosmos. Guests enter the experience in groups of ten as they listen to a series of detailed instructions about the technology needed to navigate The Infinite.

The crux of the journey involves donning VR glasses to wander the ISS. Participants are transformed into ethereal "star people" and interact with the environment by reaching out to glowing orbs that trigger intimate vignettes from the astronauts' daily lives. With more than sixty stories floating in the virtual ISS, the narrative is rich yet intimately personal, culminating in breathtaking VR footage of the spacewalk and ship launch before catapulting you back to Earth via the gift shop. From the initial blast-off simulation to the awe-inspiring spacewalk, the journey is both educational and deeply emotional.
“People have asked me, ‘Oh, is that a science center type of experience?’ and it's not at all,” says Félix Lajeunesse, the chief creative officer of Felix & Paul Studios, who conceived and served as The Infinite's creative and artistic director alongside Paul Raphael. “There's a lot of information that is communicated to audiences, but I don't think that’s the point — it's about experiencing space and understanding what it's like to be at that vantage point, look back at your world and open up your mind as to what might be possible. That's an inherently emotional experience, and that's what matters more than the didactic side of things.

“However, I would also counter that by saying that the stuff that mattered in my life was not what I was told; the stuff I retained was communicated through an emotional experience,” he continues. “We're not educators; we don't see ourselves like that. We believe in entertainment with a purpose. I’ve loved seeing groups of kids at all the cities coming in, because they will remember their experience and not say, ‘Oh, this is boring.' They're going to feel something, and that's going to stay with them.”

The creation of The Infinite began in Montreal, where Felix & Paul Studios embarked on an ambitious collaboration with NASA. It filmed in space six different expeditions with six different groups of astronauts over two and a half years.

“Our initial intent was to just do a VR series; we were set to capture it like a linear VR series, where you follow the story of astronauts from expeditions 58, 59, 60, 61 and 62 up until the SpaceX crew over two and a half years up there in space,” Lajeunesse says. “We did that; it's called Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, and you can see that content on Meta for free. It's the edited, at-home cinematic version of it. But as we were watching the footage we were receiving from space, we didn’t only want people who have VR headsets at home to get to see [space] in this format.”
While the company considered adapting it into a TV series, that never felt quite right for the creative team. Since the footage was captured in VR, the creators wanted to maintain the video in its native format.

“There's a reason why we filmed it in VR,” Lajeunesse explains. “We used [PHI Studios] expertise to build a show where you will get onboarded into an enormous space where you can virtually explore the space station and view the footage that we filmed in space. It’s not the same thing you would see in the cinematic VR series at home: We wanted to take people through different chapters leading up to the spacewalk, so we had to figure out how to build a story flow inside of that and if it’s technologically possible. How do you track [150] people on the floor doing the experience at once? How do you sanitize headsets? It's an operational challenge that took about two years of work between Felix & Paul Studios and PHI. Now it's been touring for two years, and we’ve learned a zillion things from that.”

Denver's iteration of The Infinite has been adapted to fit Stanley Marketplace, which is slightly smaller than the original location in Montreal, and incorporates new content that was not able to be captured in time before the exhibition’s original opening in 2021.
“The show that is now in Denver is the show it was intended to be,” says Lajeunesse, who visited Denver for the first time for The Infinite's opening. “The DCPA Off-Center team is just amazing. They saw the show and they started to talk to us about this amazing space, and that’s how we got to know each other. … It's been the best launch we've had, in the sense that the staff was so quick to learn how to operate the show; it feels like they've been operating it for a year or something, and the location at the Stanley Marketplace is incredible. For all these reasons, it just felt like the right match, and we’re excited to be here in Denver.”

The Infinite is a reminder of our small yet significant place in the cosmos. Through the lens of VR, visitors gain a new appreciation for the fragility and beauty of Earth. As Miller puts it, immersive art can “put you at the center of the story and can create empathy by giving you a perspective different from your own.”

“This does that quite literally, in the grandest of ways,” he continues. “It gives you a completely different perspective of our world, and I hope that that sticks with people and that they can carry that forward into their lives. The Infinite gave me a completely different perspective on our world, and I hope that it can be the case for everyone.”

Space Explorers: The Infinite runs through Sunday, May 5, Stanley Marketplace, 2501 Dallas Street, Aurora. Get tickets at theinfiniteexperience.world/denver.