An inaugural Cowboy Sandbox event — featuring local artists working in immersive
technology — is scheduled Saturday, Nov. 18, at the University of Wyoming. The program
is free and open to the public.
The presenters will demonstrate their immersive projects, plus a live DJ and an open
house are part of the program from 7-10 p.m. The event will be in the Harry C. Vaughan
Planetarium, located in UW’s Physical Sciences Building. An open house is scheduled
for the new SciDIY Makerspace in Room B37, located next to the planetarium. The open
house will feature augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality
(XR) demonstrations as well as LED-illuminated art displays.
“The demos will be in the SciDIY makerspace on our new AR/VR/XR development stations
using our corner cave — a multiprojection cave for creating immersive content,” says
Jane Crayton, makerspace coordinator. “There also will be other immersive demos and
LED art displays in SciDIY.”
Attendees will be treated to a snow cone station, where they can make their own frozen
snack.
Among the speakers are Max Gilbraith, the planetarium’s coordinator; Crayton; and
Zane Scott, assistant makerspace coordinator. They will discuss designing for immersive
technology at SciDIY and the planetarium and the creation of the Cowboy Sandbox Club.
Three audiovisual performances will feature various technologies and techniques to
get the video mapped to the planetarium’s dome and live audio in surround sound. The
scheduled artists will showcase various technologies such as TouchDesigner, Max MSP
and Sky-Scan to create their performances. Each performance will include a short technology
talk with question-and-answer sessions.
Artists, listed by their performance monikers, are:
— Dr. T.O.M. will use Max MSP and Vizzy Visualizer.
— Jane daPain and OsVinci will use TouchDesigner with a live input from Resolume.
They also will tag-team on DJ duties.
— Tinderdust will have her video prerendered for the 2K dome and will perform live
keyboards and vocals.
The program is a collaboration between the Harry C. Vaughan Planetarium and SciDIY
Makerspace, a UW Innovation Network makerspace.
For more information, email Crayton at [email protected].