Causing a ‘Psyclorama’ Down Under

A STRABANE man and digital media expert who spent the best part of a year creating an immersive audio-visual ‘made for dome’ experience will have it showcased at a prestigious film festival in Australia at the start of February.

James McGarrigle, lecturer in Digital Media at North West Regional College (NWRC) is the man behind ‘Psyclorama’ and part of a team which has brought the 32 minute experimental piece to life. It will be shown at the Dome Under Festival at Melbourne Planetarium on February 4. The festival shows pieces projected onto the curved roof of the planetarium and the team are absolutely over the moon that Psyclorama was chosen to be a part of it.

Explaining where it all came from, James said, “I was at the Mira AV Festival in Barcelona, identical to the Dome Under Festival, in 2019 as part of a Connected-NI supported field trip and I was left amazed by the experience. I suggested to my colleague who was also there that maybe this was something we could do at home, so we set to work.

“We quickly began to gather funding for the project, which came from University of Ulster, NWRC and the Celtronic Festival and set to work. A team consisting of myself, Johnny Delany, Tony Talbot, Rory Donaghy and Aaron Thomas, with essential contributions from Vincent O’Callaghan and Alan Hook set about creating a new audio-visual piece which consists of four movements.

“Psyclorama incorporates immersive cinematography, spatial audio, generative art, and artificial intelligence to fantastic effect. It’s divided into four parts; Jeux, Axis, Echosystem and Connect/Disconnect. I had to learn a ton of new software just to be able to do the work; using 360 degree cameras, having a gaming machine specially built and learning about AI; I would estimate over 150 hours of research went into Psyclorama before we even started. It was a massive learning curve, I can tell you!

“Over ten months or so, during lockdown as well, we constructed the film, assisted also by contributions from some of my students. Two years after starting it was finally completed; a long journey considering I was also teaching from home at the time.”

Psyclorama debuted last year at the Celtronic Festival to great acclaim and has been seen in festivals in England, but this is the first time it has gone to Australia. Plans for the film include entering it into the European Film circuit going forward.

James says that Psyclorama having the prime slot at the Australian festival is a huge bonus and is a compliment to the quality of their work.

“It’s a three-day festival and Psyclorama has the Saturday night slot, which is when most people tend to visit; think of it as having the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury on closing night – it’s that good!”

In closing, although Psyclorama is his brainchild, James acknowledges he couldn’t have done it without teamwork

“I love this because it’s my own work but there was a fantastic team behind the construction of the entire project; Psyclorama is a real team effort and we’re all very proud of it and its place at the festival!”

Anyone wishing to see Psyclorama but can’t get to the festival can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/@psychlorama/videos