Gaia Journeys: a museum-based immersive performance exploration of the Earth

Abstract

Gaia Journeys is a collaborative multimedia musical and virtual reality art performance conceived by author Williams, with the aid of staff at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Inspired by astronauts who spoke of seeing a border-less world from orbit, Gaia Journeys’ chief goal was to deliver this experience to museum audiences via photo-realistic virtual depictions of the Earth (from orbit as well as via spherical photographic panoramas taken from the ground) choreographed to live musical accompaniment. Gaia Journeys took place in the high resolution digital ‘fulldome’ Gates Planetarium, with Williams playing the violin and keyboards, enhancing a previously recorded backing track, while visuals were generated with SCISS AB's Uniview. The eight tracks of audio were three-dimensionally spatialised to the 16.4 sound system of the Gates Planetarium, providing an immersive sound experience to match the visuals. The audience feedback was generally positive, with great interest in repeat or similar future programming. These visitor evaluations suggest the potent power of the new class of digital planetaria for displaying virtual globe datasets to the public, via both multimedia entertainment like Gaia Journeys as well as traditional lectures.