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Animations created by Cleveland Institute of Art students will complement original scores composed by Cleveland Institute of Music students when the two colleges present a public program, 360 Degrees of Sight + Sound: The Planetarium Project, on Feb. 25 at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Nathan and Fannye Shafran Planetarium.

Swirling images and colors timed to accompany new music will surround audience members in sight and sound from all angles in the museum’s planetarium, one of the best equipped and most compelling facilities of its size in the nation.

CIA’s Animation Department Chair Anthony Scalmato said the curved nature of the dome’s surface presented interesting technical challenges for his students, who were accustomed to creating animations for flat screens. “It was the first time any of us had done anything like that so it was a lot of trial and error and test screenings at the planetarium,” he said. But students rose to the challenge and made all of the deadlines built into their ambitious production schedule.

“The students have been fantastic and I’m really proud of them,” Scalmato said. “They had to work together and communicate with each other and keep to a professional production schedule, and that in itself is a major task to handle.”

Scalmato said all of the animations were created in a course offered by the Animation Department, but that students represented a nice cross section of campus, coming from Animation, Game Design, Illustration, Video, Industrial Design, Ceramics, and Painting.

The Planetarium Project started in late summer when CIM students began composing scores. They met with CIA students early in the school year to present their original music and discuss animation ideas with the art students. Next, students from both University Circle-based colleges met with Jason Davis, the museum’s astronomy programs coordinator and a dome enthusiast, to discuss the technical considerations of composing an animation for a dome.

Public showings of 360 Degrees of Sight + Sound: The Planetarium Project are at 9:00 and 9:45pm on Feb. 25 at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, 1 Wade Oval Drive, Cleveland. Tickets cost $8 for museum members; $10 for nonmembers; and $5 for CIA and CIM students. To reserve tickets, call the museum’s box office at 216.231.1177.

The following students, listed with their majors, were involved in 360 Degrees of Sight + Sound: The Planetarium Project.

Team 1
CIA students Jonathan Amore, Game Design; Javae Brown, Game Design; Austin Frank, Industrial Design; Bianca Marie Gonzalez, Ceramics; Elizabeth Kirsten Hauff, Game Design; Akeem Pennicooke, Video; Natilya Ratcliff, Game Design; Emilie Ring, Game Design; Nicholas Ritzic, Illustration; Helen Su, Game Design; Paul Zagorsky, Illustration; and CIM students Arturo Fernandez, Composition; and Byeongmun Jeon, Audio Engineering.

Team 2
CIA students Brienne Broyles, Animation; Macy Franko, Animation; Jessica Madden, Animation; Morgan Sylvester, Animation; and CIM students Corbin Moon, Composition; and Emile Hsu, Audio Engineering.

Team 3
CIA students Akeem Pennicooke, Video; Maria Ursetti, Animation; Samantha Witzorreck, Animation; Emily Yates, Animation; Anthony Zayas, Animation; and CIM students Nathanael Moffat, Composition; and Graham Rosen, Audio Engineering.

Team 4
CIA students Benjamin Zingo, Animation; Patricia Bowes, Animation; Asiha Reasor, Animation; Jonathan Amore, Game Design; Javae Brown, Game Design; Bianca Marie Gonzalez, Ceramics; Elizabeth Kirsten Hauff, Game Design; Natilya Ratcliff, Game Design; Emilie Ring, Game Design; Helen Su, Game Design; and CIM students Jack Hughes, Composition; Katherine Cook, Audio Engineering.

Team 5
CIA students Akeem Pennicooke, Video; Rachel Yurkovich, Painting; Helen Harry, Photography; Leigh Silverblatt, a Cleveland State University student; and CIM students Kyle Martin, Audio Engineering; and Alex Cooke, Composition.

360 Degrees of Sight and Sound is an example of Cores + Connections, CIA's academic commitment to student engagement in community practices and real-world projects.