Porta Estel·lar
Porta Estel·lar (the catalan for Star Gate) is an immersive light and sound installation inside a plane. We invite the audience to embark on a cosmic journey, perceptively intense and captivating.
Through the creation of visual and sound sequences that suggest the idea of interstellar travel, we make the audience fly to outer space in an intense six-minute trip, from departure and takeoff to the sighting of comets, planets, galaxies, crossing nebulae and visiting alien worlds, until finally returning safe to earth.
The plane itself is an art project from Eduardo Cajal, http://www.trashumante.org/, who bought, transformed and adapted the plane to hold this kind of art performances inside it. Porta Estel·lar, then, is a collaborative project between PlayMID, authors of the light&sound show, and Eduardo Cajal, owner of the plane.
To create Porta Estel·lar, we built the complete system and contents, comprising:
Software engineering
Creating a 3d simulation of the plane for composing light before having installed it in the plane
Hardware engineering
Creating the whole control system to communicate with 200m of led strips, lots of soldering and hardware preparation
Video production
The whole visual content of the leds is driven by a 2d video file, which is mapped to the led pixels by a process of “pixel mapping”
Sound design
The installation features an 8-channel audio system, so we needed to develop custom software for spatial effects
Scripting
Thinking how to create an immersive piece about space travels, communicating complex ideas through an abstract language.
You can also check the full soundtrack here:
Press
thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/take-a-mind-bending-plane-ride-that-never-leaves-the-ground
motionographer.com/2015/11/11/traveling-without-moving-porta-estel.lar/
www.designboom.com/art/porta-estel.lar-installation-playmid-11-13-2015/
causeandyvette.com/installation-porta-estel.lar-gives-traveling-at-the-speed-of-light-a-whole-meaning/
www.illumni.co/porta-estel.lar-by-playmid/
Direction and Concept: PlayMID (Playmodes + MID)
Plane: Eduardo Cajal (http://www.trashumante.org/)
Hardware Engineering: Alex Posada
3D Modelling: Gerard Vallverdú
3D Realtime simulation software: Eloi Maduell
Sound: Santi Vilanova
Visual contents: Eloi Maduell + Santi Vilanova
Video edition: Eloi Maduell
Thanks to:
Marta Barnolas (filming and on site realization)
Lloc Audiovisuals (technical set-up)
Sebas (technical set-up)
Xavi Bové (filming)
Pense (additional set-up)
Casa d’oficis de l’espectacle (set-up assistance and on site-realization)