Domelab

BACKGROUND Traditional visualisation environments pose severe limits on the experimental and analytical possibilities of aesthetic information visualisation, and on the ability to generate large informational spaces for interactive navigation and interrogation. Fulldome is a significant new medium that provides this opportunity, integrating technical innovation in computing power and graphics capabilities with aesthetic innovation in content delivery. The works in this exhibition addressed the immersive visualisation opportunities of this medium, extending pioneering research in aesthetic frameworks and frontier technologies to benefit artistic, cultural, museological and humanities research CONTRIBUTION The seven artworks included in the DomeLab exhibition demonstrate an innovative fully immersive visualisation space that goes beyond the typical framing of traditional cinema and desktop computing spaces. Discovering a range of formal approaches to the challenges of the Dome, the researchers created an inhabitable information space with fully embodied audio-visual qualities that facilitates audience interaction as well as aesthetic experimentation, interrogation and analysis of the screen content. SIGNIFICANCE DomeLab is the first ultra-high resolution (4K) experimental fulldome in Australia. This powerful visualisation environment is supported by an alliance of 15 investigators from 11 organisations. The DomeLab research infrastructure fosters new knowledge and innovative practice through transdisciplinary design research. It provides a powerful platform for a range of disciplines that rely on the representation of multi-dimensional data for games, interactive media art, virtual heritage and digital archaeology, new museology and digital humanities, indigenous astronomy and storytelling.