Museum of Colliding Dimensions

“The Museum of Colliding Dimensions” was constructed around the first Platonic Rift between our world and another. It presents a stable environment for visitors to interact with the phenomena at a safe distance.” The Curator of Mixed Realities

This is an experimental installation that allows visitors to experience an alien world through complex projections, dynamic lighting and interactive sound.

The Museum of Colliding Dimensions is a unique large-scale installation combining new virtual reality technologies with multi-projection mapping, industrial motion tracking, multitouch displays, responsive theatre lights and dynamic sound. Set up as a mock museum display, the project presents an immersive experience with a mysterious Alternate Reality, called the “Rift World” made up of morphing platonic shapes, crystal formations and alien sounds all controlled and composed by the visitors’ position, movements and interactions. The Rift World can be experienced across multiple platforms of increasing immersion, allowing visitors to move from physical to augmented to virtual realities as they go from being a spectator, to actor and ultimately transition to a digital avatar.

The work not only demonstrates a unique mashup of technologies, it also invites visitors to imagine how we perceive and interact with competing realities as our lives become further enmeshed in combinations of the digital and physical dimensions. It is also an exercise in activating mundane spaces into playful, contemplative and informative environments through careful collaboration between the arts and science disciplines. The project was produced over an intense and rapid production cycle of only four months with a small team of lead artist, programmer, 3D technical artist and sound designer. Each team member has been challenged well beyond the normal discipline boundaries in order to produce a work that raises a number of questions about both the nature of creative practices and of the perceptions of reality as it becomes increasingly augmented by technological advances.

The first iteration was commissioned by QUT Creative Industries with $29,000 development funding plus inkind provision of venue and technologies provided by the QUT Creative Lab. First installed and presented for the Launch of the CreateX Festival to demonstrate the potential of trans-disciplinary practice and innovative adoption of emerging technologies across interactive and theatrical domains. Over 1000 people interacted with the installation during the one day CreateX Launch event and due to the unique presentation of new technologies and the innovative nature of the creative practice, this work received significant attention from both the media and industry. The Premier of Queensland, Hon Annastacia Palaszczuk, visited the installation as a result of the Press Release and the project was featured on ABC International, Channel 9 National Nine News, in the Courier Mail and Sun Herald.

Team

Deb Polson – Lead Artist
Wade Taylor – Technical 3D Artist
Ryan Quagliata – Programmer
Nathan Corporal – Sound Designer
Catriona Wilkinson – Prop Fabrication

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