Hunter Gorczycki

Dolby Gallery - Asteria

A site specific unique gallery space in San Francisco, made for Dolby. Worked with Tool of North America to create an augmented reality audiovisual quest across the stars. Asteria, inspired by Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and cosmic mythology, consists of a 3-act, mobile AR experience for iOS devices synchronized with a 12 minute film that plays on loop on the gallery’s 64-foot LED wrap around wall.

Inspired by the Dolby Gallery itself, we worked to design an AR experience that pairs with the big screen, coupling the two platforms to create this immersive space exploration. Putting the user in the stereoscopic transmissions of the “xO-9 probe” explorer, they’re taken to three different worlds in the year 2027, each world in a different state of worldly evolution; each corresponding to a unique epoch in Earth’s own development.

Leveraging real-time programming, audio-reactive 3D visuals, and immersive Dolby Atmos mixing, celestial bodies move through space while exoplanetary terrain is projected onto the gallery’s LED Ribbon Wall. With Dolby Atmos, sound is not constrained to channels, but moves around you in the three-dimensional space.

The Dolby sound system allows users to pan around with their smartphones and be surrounded by sound throughout the gallery, creating a multi-immersive futuristic space adventure, supported by visuals inspired by scientific research and data.

DolbyTrailer.mp4

We tell our story in mixed reality. We use the screen as a backdrop and the source of life and sound for the installation. The smartphone thus becomes an extension of the story that is being told by the film.

In order to create the best experience for the user and to create a smooth transition between worlds and storylines, we designed the AR app to pair with the Dolby screen content. By using a remote server to track time-code sync, the AR app on the user’s mobile device is able to detect where the user is within the gallery film, allowing it to stay synced with their location within the film so each act is experienced in a perfect sequence.