A Panorama of the Skies

An interactive installation in which a conference room at Microsoft HQ was transformed into an ever-changing sky, immersing visitors into an elevated emotional space.

A PANORAMA OF THE SKIES

“A Panorama of the Skies” is an interactive audiovisual installation that utterly transformed the experience of an ordinary conference room at Microsoft Headquarters into a constantly changing sky, taking visitors into an elevated emotional space.

RECORD OF MAKING “A Panorama of the Skies”
In 2015, Maja was an artist-in-residence at Microsoft Research (MSR), where she closely observed emerging technologies, focusing on the RoomAlive Toolkit developed by the Natural Interaction Research Group.

This open-source software development kit allowed developers to calibrate Kinect sensors and video projectors for immersive augmented reality experiences.

Inspired by this technology, Maja proposed converting an ordinary conference room into a portal of nature-inspired wonder. To do this, she worked with a computer scientist at MSR, Hrvoje Benko, who utilized the RoomAlive Toolkit to create a projection canvas tailored to the specific conference room. Maja created multi-channeled videos depicting emotionally charged depictions of ever-evolving skies that are made to be synchronized into one experience, gradually transforming the entire space in unison. In addition, she placed the reflective materials across the floor to enhance light effects, allowing them to spread across the space, further enriching the immersive experience.

Maja's collaboration extended to commissioning Daniel Peterson to craft an audio composition in response to the visual narrative and atmospheric transformation of the piece. Together, these audio-visual elements created a radically transformative experience of the space, tapping into the innate human connection to nature and offering visitors a journey through a space redefined by art and technology.

A visitor interacting with the transformed conference table in the immersive installation at Microsoft.

Software: Hrvoje Benko
Sound: Daniel Peterson
Exhibited: Microsoft Research Headquarters, Redmond, WA, USA
Year: 2015-2016

A Panorama of the Skies

A PANORAMA OF THE SKIES

“A Panorama of the Skies” is an interactive audiovisual installation that utterly transformed the experience of an ordinary conference room at Microsoft Headquarters into a constantly changing sky, taking visitors into an elevated emotional space.

RECORD OF MAKING “A Panorama of the Skies”In 2015, Maja was an artist-in-residence at Microsoft Research (MSR), where she closely observed emerging technologies, focusing on the RoomAlive Toolkit developed by the Natural Interaction Research Group.

This open-source software development kit allowed developers to calibrate Kinect sensors and video projectors for immersive augmented reality experiences.

RECORD OF MAKING “A Panorama of the Skies”
In 2015, Maja was an artist-in-residence at Microsoft Research (MSR), where she closely observed emerging technologies, focusing on the RoomAlive Toolkit developed by the Natural Interaction Research Group.