Confluence

Performance | Arvin Gottlieb Planetarium | Kansas City, MO | 2-3 November, 2024 | 45:00m | dome composition

In September of 2024, I was approached by digital art curator Mary McCawley to develop a visual music show for the Arvin Gottlieb Planetarium at Union Station in Kansas City. Consequently she had also secured commitments from Calvin Arsenia to provide the music and Voler Thieves of Flight Aerial Acrobatics to perform during the show as well. This performance was the main event of a weekend celebrating the 25th anniversary of the planetarium. Though I had worked with Calvin before, this show required a ground-up approach as the dome format is vastly different from a standard projection format. The run of show was 45-minutes, featuring Calvin’s musical stylings on the harp and several aerial acrobatic skills such as silks, lyra, and trapeze. The visuals worked in concert with Arsenia’s songs and conceptually moved from visions of the vastness of space to the depths of the ocean, highlighting nature and the environment, mixed with bright colors and smoke. The show was a success, selling out for both nights and there are now murmurs about reprisal sometime in 2025.