THE DAILY STAR: The audience finds itself inside a giant uterus. Or it flies around cathedral ruins. Or it is transported to a dark, lonely forest. Such are the experiences offered by Satosphere, a new cinema with a massive dome screen in Montreal designed by the Society for Arts and Technology to provide spectators with a 360-degree view of art projections. Eight video projectors splash images over the entire surface of the steel-framed shell, which juts from the roof of the building, while 157 speakers emit sounds, creating the world’s first wholly immersive cinema. So advanced is it that it allows for viewing art in three dimensions without 3D glasses.
Monday, November 07, 2011
New theater technology hints at uses beyond art
THE DAILY STAR: The audience finds itself inside a giant uterus. Or it flies around cathedral ruins. Or it is transported to a dark, lonely forest. Such are the experiences offered by Satosphere, a new cinema with a massive dome screen in Montreal designed by the Society for Arts and Technology to provide spectators with a 360-degree view of art projections. Eight video projectors splash images over the entire surface of the steel-framed shell, which juts from the roof of the building, while 157 speakers emit sounds, creating the world’s first wholly immersive cinema. So advanced is it that it allows for viewing art in three dimensions without 3D glasses.
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This opens up so many possibilities for the theatre industry. With the recent incline of media mixed with theatre I can only imagine that something like the Statosphere would be warmly welcomed and embraced. It truly is amazing that for the past 100 years film has been presented, for the most part, on one side of a box. This new development makes much more sense to me. I'm quite interested to see where this leads for both the theatre and entertainment industry!
This sounds like a much more intensive and immersive IMAX system. I feel that this has the potential to create a new branch of art. I find it kind of interesting of new changes in technology create new kinds of art, and then how technology created for art is then used for things which most people would not consider art.
Often, the arts are viewed as simple entertainment without much impact on our society (unlike economics, politics, or medicine). It is exciting to see how this technology, originally developed for film has implications outside of the arts and in "real life" connecting the artists to the world around them. Equally as exciting are the possibilities that this technology poses for theater. A modern theatrical buzz-word is interactivity. This new technology provides many many ways for an audience to interact with the art around them. The fact that the technology also provides an encompassing experience is yet another attractive feature. Of course, this technology is most likely outside of the price range for most arts organizations.
This technology sounds absolutely awesome. A seamless immersion projection environment is closer than ever to advanced virtual reality. Works of art would look so cool in three dimensions and could be so much more immersive than ever before. The addition of smell as well would add so much to the experience.
This does sound like a combination of an amazing IMAX system and a planetarium combined. The title which includes "..beyond art" is interesting because art is limitless and this project relates directly to art. It shows us how art can always be pushed and pulled between forms. I wonder how sensry overload will come into this, especially over time and the amount of productions that can be seen. This technology would be a way to present certain types of art that can be generated to work in the 360 manner. Where this could go to be more accessible and more interactive with humans than projected.
This reminds of those massive theaters you'd find in museums sometimes, where they are these massive domes and the image would be projected onto this whole surface of the dome, so you'd lean back in the chairs and really be able to get a sense of movement through some incredible shots since they were displayed so massively. This sounds like that, except taken up to the next level. Being truly immersed this way, having things displayed all around you, and looking around, and "exploring" all the projection is a great way to involve the audience even more and get them more immersed within the world of the piece. The technology being used to capture and project these works are impressive in how they are able to stitch together the various images, and make them seamless. A lot of exciting possibilities moving forward with this type of software are out there
So I usually hate 3d things an stuff of the nature, but this is truly awesome and the fact that it can really create a new reality around you is amazing for art and the rest of the world. I am curious if this technology will be used anywhere else or if if it is just sight specific. Are there other configurations that the steel could be in to lead to a cooler effect. I just picture a whole hose where you walk through and one room you are in a garden and the next you are at the ocean and the next you are on the moon. The limits are endless.
I've only seen this sort of thing used in museums and IMAX, as Catherine mentioned, but I'm excited to think that it could now be applied to theatre. I'm not sure if there is a line where it starts to destroy the point of live performance, but maybe it is rather some new beast of its own that could be fun for all of us artists to explore. I think those who are coming up with the content for this have quite a job on their hands, and I wonder if projects will succeed/fail in the Satosphere because of the creators' ability to embrace the shape and stray from what's expected. We'll see I guess!
There are so many ways that we can integrate this into live performance. It seems like this system has so much power in it's capabilities. This technology is a great way to further the evolvement of media design, and could be used to change how we view theatre. I wonder if there is sensory overload with this technology, but I think with some thought that this technology can be very effectively used in production.
I like the idea that this technology proposes for cinema. It seems like perhaps cinema is in the same "proscenium" setting that theatre has held to for so long. Certainly the popularity of black box spaces and theatre in the round has changed how our art interacts with its audience. Perhaps this type of technology can push the ideas that media artists, and those interested in virtual worlds can do. People have been exploring this type of sensory experience for awhile. New technology could provide a viable conduit for the continued exploration of many art forms.
This worries me. Technology of this caliber sounds like something that could greatly enhance certain artistic experiences but do nothing for others. However, because it is the "next big thing," everyone is going to want to incorporate it into their work and make the focus about the technology rather than the art.
It sounds like this system makes more sense for film, as it is merely expanding experiences that are already "cinematic" rather than completely changing how an audience relates to the art.
I read the article and then watched a you tube video illustrating how the Satosphere is used. Conclusion: They say the big deal about this series of projections (because it DOES look a lot like the projection domes of the NY science center, etc..) is the fact that it reaches all the way to the floor. I'm not totally buying into how revolutionary this idea is. I do think, however, it is very innovative to incorporate live theater into this system, using the projections (which can be three dimensional) and use them to create place or setting. There are alot of different potential applications for this systems that I'm really excited to see- architecture in particular. If this is a means for an architect to explore a site thousands of miles away (streaming the 6-lens camera) then there is alot of potential for expanding business that way.
The first things that comes into my mind upon reading this article are planetariums. I remember going to one in middle school on a field trip. Imaging seeing an informational show about space in a theatre like this gets me excited. Besides submerging audiences in theatrical experiences and just being generally awesome, I think this could be a really great educational tool. Any National Geographic or History Channel style informational video presentations would be stunning if they were projected in there.
The "audience" is completely surrounded. It would really feel like you are 'in' the image. This really is the new era of entertainment technology. I can see movies being made on this, as well as normal theatre with the background of a field on the screen, instead of designing a set that hints at the real thing. If it was scaled to fit, any situation of any play could be designed on a computer, or taken as a picture from the actual place (if a play is set in Greece, for example) and eliminate the need for scenery building completely.
Works of art could also be experienced with way more intensity, and this technology is also useful to hospitals and for concept meetings for the design of buildings. I'm excited to see where else this will lead.
This seems to be an impressive technology. I wish there was more information about how they do the image capture. I am unclear if there is an optical assembly of six lenses, to splice the image, which would be very interesting from a technological standpoint, or if there are simply six cameras attached together managed by digital stitching technology. I wonder further if in order to map the 3D images they have to superimpose any grid or key colors onto the source image. If they are capturing the image in a 3d fashion without any overlay or supplementary marker, that would be an impressive step in technology I hadn't heard of yet.
Theatre beyond the theatre is one of my favorite topics of exploration. With all the new technological developments, the possibilities to escape the confines of a traditional space and enter a new one in order to create art seem so much more expansive than they once were. This allows us, as theatre people, to bring our art and our experiences to new demographics - something that is desired for both cultural purposes and purposes of keeping theatre thriving. With no signs of stopping anytime soon, technology has risen to the forefront of what is possible in both the design and overall theatre world when it comes to pulling together once futuristic productions.
Just as everyone else I'm getting a little bore of the whole 3d fascination. This however does seem rather innovative. Mixing live theatre with such an interactive media experience. Would have loved to watch the tech designers think this one over.
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