Museum of Arts and Sciences making waves for commissioned short films

When “Sonolumin” won a prestigious international Janus award as best fulldome short film at the 2019 Jena Festival in Germany, the earth didn’t shake in Middle Georgia.

Maybe it should have.

The Jena Festival win was indeed prestigious at the world’s oldest showcase for fulldome work and “Sonolumin” was a film commissioned by Macon’s own Museum of Arts and Sciences and created by the museum’s friend and partner, Diana Reichenbach of the Savannah College of Art and Design.

The win was significant but only the tip of the iceberg of all the museum is doing to advance fulldome filmmaking and immersive media. Much of the work and its recognition is unknown to the local public.

First though, what do fulldome film and immersive media mean?

Basically, immersive media plunges viewers as much as possible into the sight, sound and potentially other sensory experiences of a work. It does so via a fulldome theater, a virtual reality headset or related means. In traditional film or television, the audience sees another world through a window. In immersive technologies, they step through.

Fulldome involves a 360° domed projection environment like the Museum of Arts and Sciences’ Mark Smith Planetarium. A good majority of fulldome films would be considered short films and often involve the likes of moving works of art, computer animations, stories, educational pieces or nature travelogues.

Obviously, the museum’s planetarium is perfect.

“In 2012, we made a $1.5 million renovation and reopened the planetarium,” said Susan Welsh, museum executive director. “Like ours, most city’s planetariums were built in the 1960s in the excitement of space exploration. Some cities let their aging planetariums die but we wanted to bring ours alive more than ever. It’s rare to have such digital capabilities in such a space – one of the best in the country – so we wondered what more we might do with it. The science and astronomical programs were a given, but we didn’t want to ignore other possibilities.”

Welsh said the museum’s search led to the art world and explorations in new media. With a background in art, Welsh said she was intrigued.

“Looking for creative content, we discovered there wasn’t much,” she said. “We started asking how we might provide leadership to foster and promote it. One thing led to another and we made contact with Diana who was just coming to teach at SCAD. To have her and her students who are so adept and interested in exploring this technology and art so close was an amazing turn of events.”

So far, the museum has commissioned three fulldome films with “Sonolumin” continuing to win awards and their first commission, 2017’s “Stardancer’s Waltz,” being selected for showing at every major fulldome-capable film festival in the world. The museum hs formed other collaborations to combine music and art and technology at the venue.

But content creation isn’t all. In conjunction with the Macon Film Festival, the museum has continued to break new ground. Welsh said fulldome film festivals worldwide tend to be planetarium oriented alongside science conferences and most show only science content.

“We’re helping change that,” she said. “By commissioning creative works we’ve helped grow audiences but we’re also among the first in the U.S. to incubate a fulldome festival alongside and as part of a traditional film festival. That does a lot of things. It brings awareness and an appreciation of fulldome to the traditional film audience and just as important to the creative people who make traditional films. Maybe they’ll see something and want to explore or have a conversation with an immersive artist and get new ideas. We’re encouraging and supporting the creation of new artistic expressions.”

At the 2019 festival, Welsh said 25 fulldome entries were brought to Macon representing the most innovative work from 12 countries.

“We’ve seen remarkable things in a short period and that’s due to the help of the community and to the generous support of the Knight Foundation,” she said. “It’s allowed us to move forward much faster than we’d thought. Our goal isn’t just to do something exclusive here, we want this to catch on and grow elsewhere.”

Asked to identify who had contacted the museum about fulldome works, Welsh included the famed Sundance Film Festival and a planetarium in Fort Collins, Colorado.

“All the while, we keep working to help artists get skills and access to technology to create work for our sort of venue,” she said. “We provide viewing opportunities like the film festival, our own scheduled showings and by slipping showings in regular planetarium programming. Plus, we continue to commission work. It’s all hand in hand and all very much, like our name says, art and science.

In relation to the current realities – and unknowns – caused by the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing, Welsh would only say she and officials are working toward and still considering just what the coming August festival will look like. As far as overall museum operations, she said there are many videos and virtual resources available online at www.masmacon.org.

She said the museum itself is closed with tentative hopes to reopen on a limited basis May 5. She said there will likely be limited capacity and that staff is assessing just what, when and how the museum’s expansive indoor and outdoor galleries, exhibits, zoo, trails and other offerings will operate.

Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.

Keeping in Touch

Who: The Museum of Arts and Sciences

Where: 4182 Forsyth Rd.

Contact: (478) 477-3232

Website: www.masmacon.org