You may have spent some time on the East Side Trail of the Atlanta BeltLine – it’s a charming, transportation space in the heart of the city, but it’s unlikely to contain inter-dimensional portals. That is, until July 2021, when the new attraction based on the fully immersive experience Illuminarium it is scheduled to open on the BeltLine, next to Ralph McGill Boulevard. In his first exhibition, “WILD: Safari Experience,”Visitors will explore a virtual African landscape that activates all the senses, even the smell. The interactive environments of the attraction respond to the movements of visitors through a wide range of cutting-edge technologies. Illuminarium CEO Alan Greenberg and Technology and Content Executive Vice President Brian Allen teamed up with senior City Lights producer Kim Drobes to describe the new attraction and how it was created.
Highlights of the interview:
Why is it immersive and why the BeltLine?
“I think it’s no secret that there are amazing experiences that have opened up around the world,” Greenberg said. “Things like Team Lab in Tokyo, Atelier des Lumières in Paris and Meow Wolf in Santa Fe. And we saw these trends, in what some people call the economy of experience, and we thought we could do something really special. “
“We saw the location on BeltLine and found it perfect,” Greenberg said. “We just loved the energy; you know, when you’re on the BeltLine, you’re a little adventurous and we loved that atmosphere. So when we saw it, we said, ‘We’re going to put the world’s first Illuminarium here.’ In fact, we were looking for New York City for a long time to find the right place, but when we saw it, we said, “Let’s start here.”
What is Illuminarium?
“What I like to say is that we’ve created and are creating a new multimedia format,” Allen said. “We have a very big and big canvas for audio, video, interaction, a real multisensory experience. And the advent of multiple technologies, including native 4k laser projection, audio technology capabilities, lidar-driven interactive capabilities, aroma capabilities, allowed me and the team to put on a band the technologies together, to be more of a secondary character in the content shown “.
“When you enter an Illuminarium, when you get to our Safari experience, you will see it as a reality, you will hear it in an extraordinary way, you will feel it because of the haptic systems in our apartment that give you … a loud effect on your body, you will smell it through our sensory systems and indeed you will affect it through the interactive lidar system, ”Greenberg said. you will collect dust as you walk … when you walk on the surface of the moon, you will actually leave footprints “.
Like virtual but community reality:
“Illuminarium is, in many ways, VR without glasses or without headphones,” Greenberg said. And what this allows you to do is have a shared experience … go to Africa with someone, as you normally would, and share those ‘wow’ moments, those moments in life that make your head spin.
“We believe there has never been a better time for people to come together again in a community experience, something that can’t be done with virtual reality.”