Pigments of Imagination

The Qualcomm Institute’s (QI) IDEAS series presents “Pigments of Imagination,” an interactive virtual reality experience that frames the creative process as a narrative relating the inner-workings of one’s unique imagination to the universe around us. It is an observation on the beauty, fear, adventure, sadness and loneliness of self-discovery and the artist’s ultimate recognition of process as goal, as told through the story of a small child’s journey to the moon.

The installation is designed to reimagine the popular music video in a virtual space as a dynamic, emotionally engaging experience by exploring distinctive relationships between spatialization, audiovisual reactivity and interactivity, which allow for a narrative immersion that maintains a structured arc and conclusion but unique experience with each use.

This piece features musical contributions from UC San Diego Music’s King Britt, Steph Richards and Zach Konick, and vocalist Nick Tolford. Singular virtual reality experiences will be offered in addition to the general presentation.

A livestream of the event will be available at https://youtube.com/live/bCxIhyDaynQ?feature=share.

Bios:
Timothy Gmeiner is a San Diego, California-based interdisciplinary artist and music producer. He has toured internationally under the name “Ill Poetic” and garnered public acclaim for his releases from artists and publications such as Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and Portishead. Through his company SoundRzn Design, he has provided audio and visual services for artists, universities and companies of various industries including the San Diego Symphony, OWN and HBO. He has worked as the Assistant Director at QI’s Audio Spatialization Lab and is currently enrolled in UC San Diego’s Computer Music Ph.D. program, where he focuses on audiovisual relationships in virtual and physical spaces. Current projects and collaborations focus on spatialized and interactive compositions in virtual reality, audiovisual live performance and large-scale real-time reactive installations.

Eito Murakami is a master’s student at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University. He graduated from UC San Diego with bachelor’s degrees in Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts Music (ICAM) and Political Science/International Relations. Murakami is an electronic composer, performer, sound designer and virtual reality developer. By combining his classical music training with proficiency in audio and graphics software, he creates digital interfaces and instruments that promote intuitive musical performance. Specifically, he specializes in Unreal Engine to develop audiovisual infrastructure that allows multiplayer interactions in virtual 3D environments. Murakami is a former member of the Sonic Arts Research and Development group at QI.