Inaugural Cowboy Sandbox to Feature Immersive Technology Nov. 18 at UW

An inaugural Cowboy Sandbox event -- featuring local artists working in immersive technology -- is scheduled Saturday, Nov. 18, at the University of Wyoming. The program is free and open to the public.

The presenters will demonstrate their immersive projects, plus a live DJ and an open house are part of the program from 7-10 p.m. The event will be in the Harry C. Vaughan Planetarium, located in UW’s Physical Sciences Building. An open house is scheduled for the new SciDIY Makerspace in Room B37, located next to the planetarium. The open house will feature augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (XR) demonstrations as well as LED-illuminated art displays.

“The demos will be in the SciDIY makerspace on our new AR/VR/XR development stations using our corner cave -- a multiprojection cave for creating immersive content,” says Jane Crayton, makerspace coordinator. “There also will be other immersive demos and LED art displays in SciDIY.”

Attendees will be treated to a snow cone station, where they can make their own frozen snack.

Among the speakers are Max Gilbraith, the planetarium’s coordinator; Crayton; and Zane Scott, assistant makerspace coordinator. They will discuss designing for immersive technology at SciDIY and the planetarium and the creation of the Cowboy Sandbox Club.

Three audiovisual performances will feature various technologies and techniques to get the video mapped to the planetarium’s dome and live audio in surround sound. The scheduled artists will showcase various technologies such as TouchDesigner, Max MSP and Sky-Scan to create their performances. Each performance will include a short technology talk with question-and-answer sessions.

Artists, listed by their performance monikers, are:

-- Dr. T.O.M. will use Max MSP and Vizzy Visualizer.

-- Jane daPain and OsVinci will use TouchDesigner with a live input from Resolume. They also will tag-team on DJ duties.

-- Tinderdust will have her video prerendered for the 2K dome and will perform live keyboards and vocals.

The program is a collaboration between the Harry C. Vaughan Planetarium and SciDIY Makerspace, a UW Innovation Network makerspace.

For more information, email Crayton at jcrayton@uwyo.edu.