Mount Pisgah is home to Deerfields, the most beautiful outdoor festival grounds in North Carolina, and we were proud to bring two immersive domes to this wilderness refuge for Trinumeral Festival 2009. While people piled in we deployed an intimate dome next to Wes Wezooga’s incredible array of innovative instruments. Then the festival brought us to it’s highest plateau where we inflated our fully immersive party dome for a constant crowd of excited people that had never seen the medium before. The high profile visibility brought artists and promoters from across the festival to see for themselves what an incredible experience our immersive environment really is.

Charleston has the most beautiful waterways in the country, and it’s the mission of the Waterkeepers to preserve and protect the integrity of Charleston’s waterways by defending against pollution and contamination. We love their work so we stepped in at a recent fundraising event to help them communicate their message in the most profound manner possible.

As Charleston’s most eclectic and eccentric costume ball, Skinful Halloween 2009 found the center of excitement inside ODP’s giant party dome. The wildest dressed participants got funky to DJ/VJ team Soup and Gamma inside the most interesting and extreme visual environments ever imagined! Gamma’s live interactive musical improvisation complimented the evening’s visual set and the experience was a smashing success.

The immersive dome is a first class experience, and our debut at Eye Level Art proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt. In just a few hours our event dome was transformed into a VIP lounge complete with an open bar and a complimentary laser show! VJ Soup of Smash Visuals and VJ Sonar from Spaced Invaders streamed a constant flow of eye candy both inside and outside the VIP lounge all night long while The Electric Friends DJ’d a high energy set giving rave reviews of their first immersive show. The audience, DJ’s, VJ’s and event promoters wore huge smiles on their faces all night long as the extra ticket sales and innovative outdoor attraction proved well worth it for everyone.

Adam Taylor of the College of Charleston spearheaded the initiative and contacted us to cover the sound, and projection equipment for a Movies in the Park evening at Marion Square in the heart of historic Charleston.

It was well attended, with around 100 people there to witness the acoustic singing and guitar work of Howard Buglesh.  The Films Shown were “Tapped” by  and  “Campus Sustainability” which Open Dome Productions is proud to have produced.

Tapped is a film which details the seemingly innocent love affair the world has with bottled water, revealing the hidden dangers of PET and BPA plastics, and the results of a landfill mentality in our Oceans and Rivers.  Definitely a must see.

When our VJ friend Peter Parker called to book our event dome at Venus Music and Arts Festival, we jumped at the chance to showcase the immersive experience in North Carolina. We pulled out all the stops: our biggest dome, concert sound system, extra projectors, intelligent lights, bean bags, creative content and our best field team. The first night we setup right in front of the field stage, but due to an overwhelming audience demand, we re-deployed our dome as the main stage! The hot touring act Astral Projection spun an unforgettable debut U.S. set to a dome-full of dancers and the party raged on late into the night.

Here are some pictures of the dome in action:

We were recently honored to be invited to showcase our immersive theater at the Charleston Green Fair Green Films event. Our passion is in nature documentary making and this year’s feature film was “Botany of Desire”. To compliment their theme we chose to begin each dome show with “Seeds of Spring,” an artful and musical time-lapse and stop-motion film shot from the perspective of growing plants. For a second course we custom built an exciting panoramic tour of charleston’s most beautiful places. Both short films were received with great enthusiasm and the visually striking fulldome theater turned more than a few heads.

Here are some pictures from the event.

Jack Powell’s “Creatures” Art Show to Include Prints, Video & Music

By Garrett McCullum
Contributing Writer

Multi-talented local artist Jack Powell unleashes his creatures in West Ashley this week. Alchemy Coffee & Art is presenting Powell’s innovative artwork throughout the month of March, and is kicking things off with a one-of-a-kind opening celebration this Friday, Feb. 27 from 6-9 p.m.

For the show, Powell has put together a wildly creative series of digital prints, and will also be premiering a unique 30-minute video accompanied by an original score. As an added bonus, local favorite DJ Kurfu will be spinning throughout the evening.

Originally from Chapel Hill, Powell moved to Charleston ten years ago and received a degree in graphic design from Trident Technical College “I’ve always been artistically inclined, but the majority of my work comes from my graphic design background,” says Powell, who began experimenting with digital mediums years back, when putting together posters and other promotional materials for his band The Key of Q. Since then, he has created a style all his own, and quite a repertoire of computer-based artwork.

When not making art, Powell does web and logo design and co-owns a video production company called Open Dome Productions. As part of a new project, the company has invested in a state of the art inflatable, immersive dome-shaped theatre. Fitting up to 60 people, Powell plans on using the mobile theatre, along with a number of high-definition projectors, as an educational device for local schools during the daytime. And by night, after some video and content development, it will be transformed into a brand new form of live entertainment. Powell admits that he has been getting more and more into the video side of art, and is excited to show his film at Friday’s opening.

The film, which will play once at 6:30 p.m. and again at 8 p.m., provides a captivating look at street art from around the world, and is set to musical piece composed by Powell.

Also on display will be a series of fourteen black and white creature prints. “They represent an amalgam of different animals all spliced together,” says Powell. The clarity and simplicity of the black and white coloring is in perfect contrast to the odd and imaginative collection of hybrid critters. These, along with a series of whimsical animal portraits and a handful of other prints, come together to create a truly fascinating contemporary art show.