  Since 2004, I have been collaborating with artist Josiah McElheny on the
design of cosmological sculptures, inspired originally by the chandeliers of
the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. This article describes the science
behind the four works that have emerged from this collaboration to date: An End
to Modernity (2005), The Last Scattering Surface (2006), The End of the Dark
Ages (2008), and Island Universe (2008). These works incorporate idealized
representations of many fundamental aspects of contemporary cosmology,
including expansion of the universe, the last scattering surface, cosmic
microwave background anisotropies, the growth and morphological transformation
of galaxies, the rise and fall of the quasar population, the development of
large scale structure, and the possibility that our universe is one of many
cosmic islands in an eternally inflating multiverse. A companion article
describes the history of the collaboration.
