At the premiere of DomeFest 2004, there wasn't a red carpet, or even a celebrity, in sight. The stars of the show were 18 short films stored on a hard drive.
The second-annual DomeFest, the world's only festival dedicated to the art and practice of the large-scale digital medium called fulldome, took place Saturday and Sunday at the Lodestar Astronomy Center at the Museum of Natural History and Science.
The festival showcased the works of producers from all over the country and Europe. It was sponsored by Digifest Southwest, a digital filmmaking festival, in conjunction with the center.
In order to be included in the festival, pieces were chosen by a panel of 12 field experts, including judges from Pixar and Disney. Eight submissions had roots in New Mexico, five of which came from the media arts and computer science departments at UNM.
Hue Walker has worked on dome projects as a teacher, consultant and independent artist for about two years, and she played an important role in producing the pieces from UNM. She also won a Domie award for best art piece with a project titled "Wings of Memory."
"Fulldome refers to a projection system, generally using anything from a single fisheye projector to a series of six to 13 projectors configured to create a single dome-shaped image," she said. "It creates an immersive image since the viewer is surrounded, engaging peripheral vision and, therefore, engaging a sense of motion and immersion in the image."
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Production studios, fulldome theaters, independent artists and college students submitted works for the 40-minute show. The center is one of 65 fulldome theaters in the world with an ultra-high definition, large-scale domed environment.
"DomeFest 2004 represents the most innovative and compelling experiences yet created for the medium," said David Beining, DomeFest 2004 chairman and Lodestar director. "No one has seen a show like this before."
UNM sophomore Jon Strawn heard about DomeFest on the radio and was among a near capacity crowd that attended the show on Saturday.
"It was better than I expected," he said. "They used the space pretty well, and it is short enough to be accommodating to a broad audience."
Beining said DomeFest isn't just for those interested in fulldome technology.
"Some are interested in the technology or creating the technology, and we also have many people that come to enjoy the technology that we can create," she said.
Saturday's presentation included the debut demo of the video game Star Wars Star Fighter reworked for fulldome.
Sunday, the American Museum of Natural History screened SonicVision, a digitally animated music show made in fulldome technology, in support of DomeFest 2004.
The "festival on a hard drive" will move on to international fulldome theaters.
Although the shows didn't sell out as expected, Beining said DomeFest grew enormously from last year.
"We expected sellouts and didn't quite achieve that," he said. "Next year, I would like to see more submissions from New Mexico and around the world, as well as more independent work from individual students and small production houses."
