Dream OS was a four-act circus show with a Y2K theme, combining live circus and dance with immersive visuals to create something between a concert, a dance show, and a theme park ride.
I worked with five local circus performers and dancers to produce the show in the B2 Blackbox Studio. Each act represented an application, video game, or screensaver within a Y2K-themed operating system, channeling the optimistic futurism of 2000s technology, a kind of techno-optimism that feels largely absent from the current tech landscape.
I developed panoramic 3D backdrops in Unity, projected across the B2 to surround and complement the performers, along with custom timeline and tempo-matching tools to sync choreography to the music and performers themselves, including a breakdance battle staged as a Street Fighter match.
In order to create a convincing 3D world in a panoramic projection, I used 6 virtual camera positioned in a panorama, and stiched their output together into a single projectable texture. The orientation of the cameras matched the projection screens, so that the audience could look out into the virutal extension of the physical studio.
Animated transitions carried the audience from act to act, with the visuals acting as an immersive MC throughout the show.
The show debuted in the B2 on April 16.
