Planet Rock at Invisible Worlds

Invisible Worlds is the museum’s most advanced immersive visualization environment featuring 360° Wall and floor projections and surround sound using 16 projectors and 63 speakers. Since it’s opening in 2023, it has run a 12 min loop which takes you on a journey from micro to macro scale. It took 6 years to produce. On, July 2nd, 2024, under the banner of project Planet Rock, MASK Consortium met with collaborators in SciViz, OpenSpace, Engineering, Education & AV who agreed to support an idea, or rather, explore an answer to a question: How can we turn the Invisible Worlds Theatre in to a visible, tangible expression medium for for scientists, educators, learners, and explorers? And, can we activate new explorers drawn from more diverse backgrounds by democratizing the storytelling tools through access and education?

After 3 months of experimentation & collaboration, the Planet Rock team had enabled OpenSpace visualization in Invisible Worlds, and developed a Virtual Content Development environment that functions with free applications.

By creating a scale accurate virtual Invisible Worlds Theater in Unity3D,

– the team was able to spend extended time in the Invisible Worlds theater that would not been feasible in the real theater due to sheer challenges of scheduling tests. extended collaborative time in the virtual environment led to innovations correcting the UV Mapping alignment, orienting the camera viewports to move in sync, and calibrating camera height & field of view.
– methodologies were documented to enable open source content development for the IW theater.

– new creative collaborators are being on boarded to confirm protocols can be distributed and understood by people outside of the museum .

After establishing these modifications to OpenSpace code, on 10/28/24, we tested real-time rendering of our universe in the Invisible Worlds Theater. Participants experienced:

• Spatially accurate landscape views and horizontal / surface flyovers (manhattan & moon as examples in the recording)

• Height dimension expressed correctly from floor and wall perspectives

• Blending transition from walls to floor

Lastly, we scheduled an events experiment on 3/20/25. The immersive dance party, Planet Rock Mission 1 featured a live DJ (world-renowned Rich Medina), live vocalist (Lady Alma), and guests from 7 to 70 years old.

Special guests included: President Sean Decatur and his family, Provost Cheryl Hiyashi, Paul J. Thompson, head of NYC DOE Arts Education, and Lisa Kim from the Ford Foundation.

It’s an important milestone and the team wants to share it to stimulate ideas around how you might each use the Invisible Worlds Theater to share your ideas with different communities.

“You are used to seeing OpenSpace in Planetariums, but, it’s a different experience to travel to anywhere in our documented universe and stand immersed inside it. I’m excited to see how people will use the two technologies together.” – Mark Hines, MASK Consortium

CONCLUSIONS

We believe the innovations & planet rock & experiences like it can address:

Visitation challenges to aid in developing new models for revenue generation
Attract funding streams the museum has not necessarily been targeting
- S.T.E.A.M. funding
- Funding from arts & culture patrons who do not traditionally support science museums
Stimulate discovery amongst non-scientists about science through innovative programming

MASK CONSORTIUM extends thanks to:
Rebecca Oppenheimer, Vivian Trakinski, Loretta Skeddle & Benjy Bernhardt, Eric Cortes, Danny Zieger & Jackie Farhety, Jacquline Handy, Micah Acinapura, Eozin Chae, Rocco DiSanti, Kobie Fowler, & Megan Villa.