360° 4k Projection.
Try panning the camera around.
Try panning the camera around.
Concept
In the Summer of 2019 I had the opportunity to collaborate on a dome projection piece that would be screened at the Macon Film Festival in the Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences' Mark Smith Planetarium. This was a unique and exciting project fraught with technical challenges, so I was sold.
The initial idea was that each of the collaborators would work on their own short pieces which would eventually be stitched together to form a cohesive whole. Ideas were floated initially about narrative through-lines that could tie the individual pieces together, but there was never any real consensus.
After being cautioned about keeping the audience's comfort in mind, I realized that my goals for this project weren't exactly in line with my colleagues. If images moving too quickly in an immersive environment could cause disorientation or even distress, I felt it was my duty to see how far the limits of speed could be pushed. With a 360° environment at our disposal the opportunity for chaos was simply too great to squander it creating something meditative and calm. I do not believe beauty must necessarily be soothing.
Mark Smith Planetarium at the Museum of Arts and Sciences — mACON, ga
Throughout this project I was acutely aware of the architectural space, and of how I wanted to use and manipulate it. This piece would be designed specifically for the dome and therefore would unfortunately not be as engaging via other media.
Concept — Sphere
First, black and white stripes would emanate from directly overhead coating the walls with cascading rings. This would draw attention to the dome's spherical shape, and continue just long enough for a viewing audience to grow accustomed to the steady pulses of light. Then I would begin to rotate this sphere, and hopefully create a sense that the entire room was tilting.
Concept — Cube
After the sphere peels away, four walls and a ceiling rush in from the distance trapping everyone in this confined space. Now in this spherical room, corners seem to exist where the projected walls meet.
The idea is to leave the audience in this simulated room for a moment to hopefully elicit a sense of claustrophobia.
The idea is to leave the audience in this simulated room for a moment to hopefully elicit a sense of claustrophobia.
Concept — Emptiness
Finally the cube is smashed, and the audience floats up and out of the room into a seemingly infinite void. The space is completely gone, and we spiral through a system of grids still echoing that former room.
My hope is that the audience experiences euphoria after being freed, but at the same time perhaps a sense of loss and solitude. Though they were previously confined, they are now without protection.
Development
All images were created within Cinema 4D to take full advantage of the spherical camera. Images were output in 8K rectilinear files, and then processed through After Effect's VR Converter in order to output a suitable dome format.
