Planetarraeum (dome dome)


2014 // Nuit Blanche


Team:
Alexandra Sermol, Emerson-Vargas Niño, Nicole Rak, Julia Nakanishi, Joshua Macdonald, Michelle Lin, Zach Ropel-Morski, Felix Yang, Thomas Noussis, Bianca Weeko Martin, Laura Di Fiore, Josephine Guan, Tony Kogan, Kate Brownlie, Severyn Romanskyy
A geodesic dome is a structure that has been used for decades in the creation of planetariums. They are places we visitthat enable us to explore the unknown; to observe the world outside of our own. But what happens when we lose sight of our own world? We wish to build a place for people togather and experience Toronto from a new perspective, a space that will cause a collective moment of contemplation amongst strangers.

Remember that moment, sitting in a plane and watching the city gradually disappear beneath you--people and cars transforming into mere specks, the landscape disappearing into infinity across the horizon. The moment
is fleeting, and soon you're amongst the clouds, separated completely from the world you just watched disappear. Imagine if that moment was captured, prolonged for an entire night.

With a weather balloon equipped with three
GoPro cameras floating 300ft in the air, we obtained an aerial video feed of downtown Toronto from sunset to sunrise. The video feed will be projected onto the interior of a geodesic dome, allowing everyone to behold
that spectacular, rare image. All the while the glowing balloon will float above the dome, a beacon in the sky, welcoming people to come and congregate below.

The dome's interior projection will surround guests with a spherical view of Toronto from the balloon's birds-eye-view. We are inverting the relationship of the people to the city; up will be down, the horizon at eye level and buildings fading into the sky above. Viewers will experience the cityscape as it evolves throughout the night; Nuit Blanche as a whole seen from above, lighting up the city in a festival of lights and sounds. The dome
will respond to the differing characters of the city as it morphs, from sunset, to midnight, and finally to sunrise, bringing interior and exterior environments together.