Vortex Dome

Ed Lantz, President Vortex Immersion Media, Designer, Immersive Experience Producer

Ed Lantz is an entertainment technology engineer, entrepreneur and pioneer of large-format digital cinema. He transitioned from aerospace engineering to immersive media in 1990. His team at Spitz transformed old-style planetariums into immersive visualization environments, designing over a dozen dome theaters worldwide including the Library of Alexandria in Egypt and Papalote Museo in Mexico City.  He trained animators in immersive arts and sciences at ACM/SIGGRAPH, provided creative and technical expertise on six fulldome productions, and holds two U.S. patents on immersive theater designs.  His company, Vortex Immersion Media, produces immersive and interactive experiences for Fortune 500 clients including MTV, Nestle, Nike, Deloitte, Siemens, and Sprint, and recently opened the Vortex Dome, the first commercial fulldome production studio and events venue located in downtown Los Angeles.  Lantz is co-founder of IMERSA and is actively developing industry standards for giant screen digital cinema in cooperation with the Giant Screen Cinema Association and the NSF-funded DISCUSS project.  He is currently founding the Next-Gen Cinema Consortium which will bring together entertainment industry innovators to demonstrate how local cinemas can become transmedia distribution hubs for Hollywood feature film programming and related assets.

INNOVATIVE ART, MUSIC & MORE

The League of S.T.E.A.M.

Mary Duda - Virtue Play

Duda has been a technology industry leader, fine artist, and forward thinker for over two decades. Starting out with the technological explosion in the 1980’s, she developed a reputation as an authoritative voice on multimedia.  After founding her company in 1981, Duda Design, she gained acclaim by producing Disney World’s EPCOT Grand Opening (1983), which utilized new innovations in multimedia. Upon completion, Duda became the leading multimedia architect for the Los Angeles Olympic Committee. In 2000, Duda established Virtue Arts, a software company.  Duda used her extensive knowledge of multimedia to develop industry leading software tools.  In 2003, Duda launched VirtuePlay, a digital game developer.  In 2011, Duda created MoonPlay; releasing in 2012 the first virtual world of its kind: astronomically accurate ‘Lunar Racing’. 

Duda holds a M.Ed. in Educational Tech. From 1985 to 1997, Duda taught CGI and Interactive Media at UCLA.  She has lectured worldwide on Art and Education.. She is creating a series of Interactive Art books called InterArtBooks.  The first of the series; "Star Rover: a Journey to God"; releasing 2012.

DUDA ART includes: fine art, computer graphics, photography, optical light paintings and digital walls. Her trademark is a unique blending of fine art, photography & computer graphics.  She has produced major shows worldwide.  Currently, Duda is releasing a series of limited editions. A world touring show is in development.

Jahna and Michael Perricone - Lotus Post and Omstream

Presented by Omstream.com, the on-line music download store devoted to consciousness-raising world music, Jahna and Michael Perricone bridge cultures and time through their innovative blend of world-music, classical and original songs, infused with a spiritual vibe.  The couple spreads consciousness through Jahna’s transformational vocals and songwriting along with Michael Perricone’s mastery in Tibetan singing bowl artistry, guitar and creative arranging.  Recently, the couple performed as part of an all day event with the MARC institute at UCLA,  c3: Center for Conscious Creativity/Chair, Global Arts and Media Node of The Millennium Project, and LA YOGA Magazine.  They’ve performed their exciting aural blend for c3/GATE’s 'Immerse the Future' at the LA Center Studios Screening Room; attended by leaders in the transformational/conscious movement: Reverend Michael Beckwith, John Raatz of GATE, and Jerome Glenn of the UN Millennium Project. They’ve performed as The Walt Disney Concert Hall;  Nate Holden Performing Arts Center (as part of ‘The World Festival of Sacred Music); on Showtime’s highest rated drama series, ‘The L Word’ and charted No. 1 on iTunes as the top download from  ‘The L Word: The Third Season Soundtrack’; at  ‘BhaktiFest’ and the  ‘Elevate Film Festivals’; ‘OmPass Green Festival’; ‘Yoga Health 10 City Tour’, ‘Conscious Life Expo’, ‘Go Green Festival’; ‘KULA’; ‘The Celebration of Oneness’ Event;  Pink-Link; Tsunami Relief;  and Real Medicine Foundation charities.  You can learn more about Jahna and Michael at Jahnamusic.com and Omstream.com and lotuspost.com.

Mark Huber

A philosopher scientist with an interest in the manipulation of light as a bridge to ART.  He currently holds numerous patents in the area of the manipulation of polarized and birefringent light.  His primary artistic interest is the “Spirit Within” a personal study of the interaction of light and objects, which can manifest the sense of an inner life force. Mark has 25 years experience creating, designing and building artifact based Special Effects for Movies and Theme Parks, so he can both envision and create the objects of his imagination.  Mark has a Masters in Geology and Bachelors in Philosophy, which are remarkably useful in the pursuit of his ART.

Franz Kellar is a true multimedia artist -his projection work is a combination of modern computer geometry withclassic media, such as ink brush drawing and puppeteering.
He is a graduate of UCLA Design School, and prominent member of the Pomona Arts Colony (in Western LA County), former director of SCA Project Gallery and employee of The Academy of Art, SF.In the techno clubs, and on YouTube, he's known as VJ Franz K - a video journalist as well as music / visual performer.  You might recognize his infamous "Mantaray iPad Guitar / DJ Frame", a custom instrument which was revealed to the web a year ago!  He is now venturing into the world of iPhone software creation, with apps such as Radarhead19, a (literally) revolutionary musical toy.  He is a former member of "experimental folk / sound design band" AFC,
now involved in The Great Pyramids and Thursday's Hammer.

Brien E. Rullman
Aka: VJ TEK
OVT Visuals

Brien E Rullman has exercised his birth right of "the creative use of freedom" to its maximum potential. Rullman graduated from Columbia College in Chicago Illinois. He is an artist, musician and performer. Founder of OVT Visuals a multi media performance
art collective, focusing on live video mixing. OVT has helped develop cutting-edge equipment and software over the years to be able to perform live and AUDIO
VISUALIZE the concert. VJ TEK listens to the music and reacts live to the sounds creating a live video environment that responds and changes to the speed, tempo and vibe of the music. VJ TEK has a unique synthesthia that enables him to see the music that he in turns mixes the video to match his visions. He is a cast member of Rabbit in the
Moon,TV Sheriff and the Trail Buddies and MASS Ensemble, Team Ztrip,
Performing visuals all over the world and in other dimensions, TEK has been creating
images and music all his life, and he enjoys constructing video art environments in a
variety of wondrous places such as Vortex Immersion Dome.
tek@ovtvisuals.com
vj_tek@mac.com

Thadeus Frazier-Reed is a Philadelphia born composer/artist. He studied Double Bass performance at Eastman School of Music and composition at The University of the Arts. He completed his degree at California Institute of the Arts under the tutelage of Mark Trayle, Michael Pisaro, Tom Erbe, James Tenney and Sara Roberts. His work was also heavily influenced by close work with Curtis Bahn and Dan Trueman of Interface, and Dawn Stoppiello and Mark Coniglio of Troika Ranch.   
   

Although the process of his art almost always uses his knowledge of the structure and timing of music, music is not always the medium. Thad's artwork displays his background and interests in music performance, composition, ethnic instruments, dance, sculpture, audio/visual systems, electronics, technical theater, computer programming, computer graphics,and dynamical systems. His work tends to defy the static nature of classical music performance by creating music and images through movement. Thadeus builds instruments, installations, and software that explore new interface interaction paradigms. He also attempts to express complex biologic systems as music and/or dynamic visual artwork.

When not working on his own artwork, Thadeus supports other performing artists by working as a technical director, mix engineer, sound designer, and audio technician. He was one of the founding members of ArcheDream, a blacklight multimedia dance theater company, based in    
 Philadelphia. He was the resident composer/sound designer for Theatre Tribe in North Hollywood, and has also worked on production and post production sound for film, TV and experimental animation. Thadeus is currently the head audio engineer for Grand Performances in downtown Los Angeles.
   

His work can be seen at www.tcfr33.com with more soon at www.creativecontrol.cc

Brian Alan Quandt - Immersive Experience Producer/ Entertainment Engineering Executive

For over two decades Brian Quandt has served as a pioneer of visual and interactive technologies and businesses. He put his considerable entrepreneurial and engineering expertise to work developing new technologies and award-winning products that allow audio and video to be experienced in a wide variety of environments—from a movie set on- location in a remote village in Romania, to exhibits with Matthew Barney at the Guggenheim museum, to a Mars 3-D visualization center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories, to a 3D art installation with Intel at Cochella, to websites and living rooms throughout the world.

Currently, Quandt is in high demand for his deep understanding of both the stereoscopic business and stereoscopic technologies. Quandt’s stereoscopic and other visualization systems as well as consulting services have been used on over 100 major motion pictures in the past 10 years including My Bloody Valentine 3D, 2012, Julie and Julia, Year One, Underworld, Love Ranch, Zorro, Casino Royale and many more. Quandt has worked directly with many of the Hollywood major studios including, Fox, Sony, Disney, and Lionsgate and his technology products have been used extensively by some of the largest production services companies in Hollywood including Deluxe, Fotokem, Laser Pacific, and Technicolor.

THE ARTISTS:

DOME MUSIC & CONTENT

Aaron Axelrod - "Melting Rainbows" Premiere!

Aaron Axelrod was born in 1983 and is a graduate of CalArts. His interests lay in the ideas of social interaction, mass-media, and sexuality. Axelrod lives and works in Los Angeles.

Past projects include backdrop paintings and set designs for the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, official artist for the Coachella Music Festival featuring pieces of Madonna, Radio Head, Ghostace Killah, Bjork and many more.  He has created Memorial art for the LA Sheriff's Department, an Angel statue for the Los Angeles City of Angels project and has had collaborations with TOMS and the Falling Whistles Organization. His most recent project is a massive permanent public art installation currently on view at the Skee.TV headquarters in Hollywood.  Axelrod has been exhibited in cities across the country.  "Melting Rainbows" is his first attempt at 360 dome cinmea content. 

Miles Regis

Miles Regis is an internationally celebrated artist whose work has been featured in profiles on CNN, The Huffington Post, and Extra TV to name a few. The Trinidad native relocated to Los Angeles to attend USC, graduating with a BA degree in creative writing. It is no coincidence that Miles' large-scale paintings tell wonderful and thought provoking stories that combine his American experiences with the culture and flavorings of his native land. Recent partnerships have included relationships with Intel, Vice Magazine, Adobe, The Creators Project, and the launch of a 3D Art world tour at the Coachella Music Festival 2011. Supporters of Miles' work include American Rag Cie, CCH Pounder, Nicollette Sheridan, Manifest Equality, Ron Perlman and Tonny Sorenson. Art institutions that have generously supported Miles include the Santa Monica Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Miracle Mile Art Walk, La Musee Boribana in Senegal and numerous art institutions around the world.

Photo Courtesy of Warwick Saint

ArcheDream for HUMANKIND (http://adhk.org/) is an internationally touring blacklight mask and dance theatre company that communicates universal ideas and emotions to promote understanding and compassion. Merging ancient ritual and magical storytelling with modern technology, ADHK unites, uplifts and enchants audiences through riveting performances and workshops.  Working together with VJ Tek (http://www.youtube.com/user/VJTEK1) and interactive media artist Thadeus Frazier Reed (http://www.tcfr33.com/), ArcheDream for HUMANKIND & Vortex Immersion are proud to present "Hearth Breathe" written and directed by Glenn Weikert (http://glennweikert.com) featuring performers Lara Terstenjak (http://www.myspace.com/larangel), Alexandra Underhill (http://www.artofxan.com/) and Sarah Moser (http://www.sarahmmoser.com).

Social Animal is an entertainment technology lab and production studio that develops new types of media for projection, broadcast, online and mobile as well as the technology that drives it.  Social Animal developed the SA9 360 video camera system, which produces 2k resolution, seamless, gapless, distortion free panoramic video.  For the first time, Social Animal will project the Devo music video “What We Do” in the Vortex Immersion Dome during the C3 event.

Devo is best known for changing audiences idea of what a Rock band can be by employing new technology in its music and pioneering Music Video as a medium.  Devo’s Chief Strategist Gerald Casale joined visionary directors Kii Arens and Jason Trucco, to create an iconic video that changes people’s idea of what a music video can be.  The team turned to Social Animal to make that vision a reality.

“What We Do” features the band performing in a circular room divided into eleven worlds, each showing a unique tableau of Devo-inspired characters performing their own respective activities.  During the online release Social Animal worked to integrate “360 Touch Video” elements into the video, allowing viewers to not only create their own experiences with the 360 degree video content, but to mouseover items in the video for an opportunity to purchase Devo merchandise.  For this projected dome experience Social Animal built a three dimensional "Devo energy dome" to fill the upward viewing angle of the video to create a fully spherical immersive live experience.

The end result is an unprecedented interactive experience that allows viewers to truly engage with one of music’s most innovative bands.  The online experience is available @ http://mashable.com/2011/04/19/devo-what-we-do/

Eye Vapor

Eye Vapor's principals are Jeff Smith and Russ Haines. Jeff has worked in the computer graphics industry for more than two decades. Having held high-ranking creative positions at Electronic Arts (EA) and THQ, Jeff created Eye Vapor when computer hardware finally could support his lifelong vision of producing stunning, real-time visualizations for concerts and events. Russ is a founding member of Severe Tire Damage, the first band to produce a live Internet video and audio broadcast in 1993. Russ co-invented the Web-controlled camera, audio mixer, and fog machine. His book Digital Audio is used as a textbook and is published in six languages.

Eye Vapor's interactive technology has been used to map the Hollywood Bowl, numerous corporate presentations and can be seen with the Jabbawockeez, currently headlining the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas. Eye Vapor has also performed with world class DJs including The Crystal Method, Armin Van Buuren and The Stanton Warriors.

eyevapor.com