Sesqui VR-360 Waterball

One of the many projects sponsored by the Canadian government for Canada's 150th birthday, was a VR experience lab called Sesqui. I was invited to create a VR 360 piece as part of their “Meridian Project” an online VR experience.
My first and only idea was to create a sphere, like a geodesic dome, and for the viewer to be inside that sphere, watching projected film clips of moving water that move in patterns all around them.
The closest thing to this I had done previously was "Mountain Spectrum" for Tourism BC. But where that was flat, this was spherical; and where that was mountains this was water; and that was still while this was moving.

The technical team built the sphere, and sent me a flat map of it. I had 44 video clips of water that I had been shooting and collecting for several years, and I needed to map them onto 122 triangles of the geodesic sphere, showing where they would come in, what direction they would face, and when they would be replaced by a new clip.

I took screenshots of all the clips and marked the position and direction of the triangular shape I wanted used from that clip. Then I made a timeline (several pages long) showing what clips were running, when. I made a map of each time transition, showing what clips went where, with each colour coded, and a dot on the triangle to show the direction of the clip (some flowed inwards, some flowed outwards, some flowed around a hexagram).

The final step was to add music. They hired Scott Morgan, aka loscil, an ambient music artist from Vancouver to do the music. He created a generative soundscape of ambient and water sounds that changes each time you view the ball.

The final result was exactly what I had had in mind. Being inside the ball with the music is hypnotic, trippy and calming. There are six views (top, bottom, and four "sides") in which something different is happening all the time. You could view it and relax and hang out, or you could do drugs and trip out. You can look at one view the whole time, or look around. It runs for 3 minutes, fades to black and then loops again.

I wish you could see it, but god knows where it is now.

CREDITS:
Production Company: SESQUI
Produced by: Joel McConvey
Visual Design and Video Capture: Marian Bantjes
Music and Audio Design: loscil
3D Assembly: Mike McDougall
rogramming Engineer: Mike Despault