Expanding the Dome With Live Performances
This IMERSA Day explored the potential of bringing live performances to the dome. The program showcased examples that have evolved from experiment to success. Watch this and other recordings in our members - only library.
MARCH 11
10AM - 12PM MT • 5PM - 7PM UT
Matt Wright
Liese Endler
Ed Lantz
Alicia Sometimes
James Hood
Janire Nájera
Presenting pre-produced shows in the planetarium is the cornerstone of the industry, but the dome offers so much more. There is a reason why planetariums are often referred to as fulldome theaters: they can indeed be venues for theatre or music shows, classical or modern, they may house interactive events of media art that defy current genres. If done right, such shows will attract new audiences while inspiring artists to engage in the use of immersive 360-degree technologies which are unique to the dome venue.
Our hosts are talking to experts who present what has been done in this pioneering field and where the trend will lead us in the future. Domes -- with their unique shape, architecture, and seating -- create many opportunities for open-minded stage designers, producers, directors, and performers, be they musicians, dancers, actors, acrobats, or interactive technologists. Certainly, performances of the immersive kind are here to stay.
As tempting as this may sound, the sheer size of the dome’s canvas, the constraints of the planetarium operators, and the habits of the audience create significant challenges which our experts will discuss. Expanding the Dome with Live Performances aims at creating unified experiences of sound, visuals, and acting in a way that is more powerful than what is usually experienced in regular venues for live concerts. When the audience is not only surrounded by projections, but also with action, things look quite different. Vive la difference!
Our Presenters
Alicia Sometimes is an Australian poet, broadcaster and director passionate about science communication. Alicia has performed my spoken word and poetry at many venues, festivals and events around the world. Her poems have been published in Best Australian Science Writing, Best Australian Poems and many more and in 2020 Alicia won the Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize. She is director and co-writer of the art/science planetarium shows, Elemental and Particle/Wave. Particle/Wave had sell-out shows as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, World Science Festival Brisbane, New Scientist Live (UK) and was featured in Jena and Tokyo full-dome festivals. She is currently a Science Gallery Melbourne ‘Leonardo’ (creative advisor). Alicia’s TedxUQ talk in 2019 was about combining art with science.
Liese Endler is a media artist, fulldome theater producer and immersive media teacher, currently living and working in Weimar, Germany.
With a background in theater studies and film production as well as stage and costume design, she brought her own angle to the emerging genre of immersive theater when she started contributing to fulldome shows in 2015, bringing her interest in crystals and nature to the game. The following year she joined the FullDome Festival Jena team and helped to organize this well known annual event ever since.
Liese Endler contributed work to numerous fulldome theater shows in the Zeiss-Planetarium in Jena, most notably the immersive music theater “Cirque du Bauhaus” in 2019, which Liese organized and co-directed. As a teacher at the Bauhaus University in the Faculty of Art and Design in Immersive Media, she nurtures the talents of a culturally diverse group of students, helping them piece together a successful fulldome show. She is part of an international team of fulldome professionals, media artists, musicians and students which is in the midst of creating the upcoming immersive music theater show titled “Tropicaliszt”.
Having worked in several disciplines and lived in several locations, including Weimar, Leipzig and Montreal, Canada, she brings together academics and creatives from around the world, sparking cooperations for example one between the FullDome Festival and the Planetarium in Buenos Aires. It is her goal to inspire and bring together teachers, students and institutions in the field of immersive media.
At the moment, Liese holds a research scholarship from the Bauhaus University to explore and prepare the research question for a PhD. In this work, the sphere of the dome will become a laboratory to experiment towards a more human centered and body friendly.
Ed Lantz
President and CTO, Vortex Immersion Media, Inc.
Ed Lantz is an entrepreneur, entertainment technology engineer, producer and immersive experience designer. Ed left aerospace engineering in 1990 to transform old-style planetariums into immersive visualization environments, designing over a dozen dome theaters worldwide including the Library of Alexandria’s Planetarium in Egypt, Domodigital at Papalote Museo del Niño in Mexico City, and the National Space Centre planetarium in Leicester, UK. His company Vortex Immersion Media produces immersive and interactive experiences for Fortune 500 brands, top artists and audiences worldwide and is developing a network of branded immersive venues.
Ed believes in the power of art to facilitate positive transformation on personal, local and global scales. He sees modern digital domes as “digital temples of transformation” for their ability to combine art and science to create compelling immersive journeys, performances and experiences with positive impact. Ed has directed, produced and supported numerous live participatory events combining theater, dance, music and immersive projections. Vortex’s latest show, James Hood’s Mesmerica, produced in cooperation with Moodswings and Bridge Arts Media, has screened in over 30 digital domes in North America and offers visitors a journey into their own mind while evoking a sense of happiness.
Ed holds a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering with minor in Quantum Physics and Electromagnetics from Tennessee Tech University, and studied comparative religions at the School of Sacred Ministry in Doylestown, PA culminating in ordination as an Interfaith Minister in 2000. He has chaired the boards of non-profit arts organizations including Create Now and c3: Center for Conscious Creativity, serves as a Board Delegate on the Producers Guild of America’s New Media Council, is Chair Emeritus of LA ACM SIGGRAPH, and is co-founder of IMERSA, a trade association focused on immersive media for entertainment, research, science and arts. www.vorteximmersion.com www.mesmerica.com www.thevortexdome.com
James Hood is renowned as a vital and versatile musical pioneer. His lengthy and varied musical resume includes playing drums in The Pretenders, an ongoing two-decades-plus run as mastermind of the visionary ambient/electronica act Moodswings and an expansive array of production and soundtrack projects.
In 2014 James launched the album Ceremony, an exploration of a uniquely mesmeric melodic instrument - the PanArt Hang. The "sonic incense" of this recording spoke to fans of ambient artists such as Brian Eno, Phillip Glass and those seeking a peaceful time-slowing soundtrack. Ceremony was a resounding success, introducing tens of thousands of listeners to a compelling sonic experience, and reaching #1 on World and New Age charts in US and Canada. James repeated that success once again with the release of Pure Ceremony in 2015.
The story now continues with the global release of James third album, Mesmerica on November 10th, 2017. This new two disc album finds James further deepening his sonic explorations, adding additional instrumentation and rhythmic textures to his now signature soundscapes. A musical journey that will take you deep into the beautiful space that is your higher self. James will be touring Mesmerica globally in 2018 with performances planned at planetariums and immersive domes worldwide. Sit back and breath. The ceremony is about to begin. Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream as you enter the magical world that is MESMERICA.
Janire Nájera and Matt Wright have been working together since 2006 developing multi-disciplinary international art projects from their base in Wales. In 2013 they founded 4Pi Productions to combine their creative practices exploring the boundaries between art, design and technology. 4Pi are constantly innovating to create fulldome content and live immersive experiences with a strong emphasis on bringing people together within a physical digital space (the Dome). 4Pi have led in fulldome film production rooted in live capture with Liminality receiving multiple awards in 2018. They have produced and toured various immersive live performances including Liminality Live, Juniper and Black Mantis.
Title for presentation: Expanding artist’s horizons, from dream to reality
In 2019 they opened CULTVR Lab, Europe’s first immersive cross-disciplinary space with a strong focus on digital arts, live performance and 360º cinema. The Lab creates an environment for producers, technologists, film and theatre makers, dancers, visual artists, academics and performers to come together, learn, create and share with audiences new forms of art and entertainment.
https://4piproductions.com/ https://www.cultvr.cymru/
Our Hosts
Micky Remann is a German born media artist and producer of media events. He is Professor for Immersive Media at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, where he has been teaching the art of full dome since 2007. In the same year, Micky was one of the founders of the FullDome Festival at the Zeiss-Planetarium Jena, which he continues to direct until today. The international festival showcases and awards fulldome productions, and 360-degree immersive music theatre shows. Recently, the festival pioneered 360-degree live streaming of the festival program.
As the inventor of “Liquid Sound”, Micky is also connected to a very tangible experience of immersion: floating in body temperature salt water, immersed in underwater sounds, lights and video images. The technology of “Liquid Sound” is installed in three major Spa venues in Germany, where it has become the key attraction, featuring regular underwater live concerts, DJ nights and an annual all night Liquid Sound Festival.
As a travelling author, Micky Remann also published articles, books and travelogues, he hosts TV-Dome shows with the network Salve.tv, he presents at scientific conferences and performs at cultural events.
www.fulldome-festival.de www.liquidsoundclub.net www.salve.tv/tv/Salve/19734/Welcome-to-the-TV-Dome:-Pedro-Zaz
Ryan Moore is the founder of Dome Fest West, Los Angeles’s first Fulldome film festival. Before that, he started Experience 360°, a Burbank-based Virtual Experience Design Studio that has been creating branded and narrative immersive content since 2015. Making an early mark on the VR scene, Ryan produced Experience 360°’s first immersive feature Speed Kills VR, staring John Travolta. Continue his feature-length immersive work, in 2019 Ryan worked with 5-time Emmy winner Maranatha Hay to produce the groundbreaking narrative fulldome documentary feature, Indirect Actions. Mr. Moore’s career within film production experience includes experimental branded content (Disney, Toyota, Cosmopolitan, GoPro), TV commercials (Pepsi, Jack In The Box, Tropicana), music festival coverage (Fuse Media), and Reality TV (Bachelor/Bachelorette). www.DomeFestWest.com www.Experience360.tv
