Dr. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, chief designer of the facility, composer, and media artist with over thirty filve years of experience in media systems engineering, outlines the vision for our research.
Etherial: A Quantum Composition & Installation featured at ISEA, Gwangju, Republic of Korea. Also can be viewed at the California NanoSystems Institute's AlloPortal and AlloSphere.
Our Team is led by Dr. Kuchera-Morin (Director, Inventor, & Lead Researcher) of the Allosphere Research Group. Dr. Andres Cabrera as Media Systems Engineer, Dennis Adderton as Technical Director. And the AlloSphere Team.
Dr. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin Group is available to discuss future collaborations.
AlloSphere - Who we are
Welcome to the AlloSphere Research Facility, located in California NanoSystems Institue (CNSI) at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).
The AlloSphere research group is directed by Distinguished Professor and Chief Scientist Dr. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin.
The research group includes computer scientists, designers, engineers, mathematicians, and media arts researchers.
Members of the AlloSphere Research Group are affiliated with the Media Arts & Technology (MAT) ,graduate program at UCSB.
Dr. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin @ TED
Intersecting Science, Engineering, and the Arts
Dr. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, chief designer of the facility, composer, and media artist with over thirty years of experience in media systems engineering, outlines the vision for our research.
In representing complex and real-world scenarios on computational platforms, a number of data types come into play, including real data from scientific instruments, simulations on that data, as well as mathematical equations as a result of previous years of experimentation and simulation. Reenacting these complex holistic systems interactively and in real time leads to the possibility of new scientific discoveries as well as new forms of art and entertainment, the interactive cinema of the future and real-world simulations of “nature as it could be,” not nature as it is.
Kuchera-Morin,JoAnn. Letter to Newton Harrison. 11 Feb. 2022. Personal collection of JoAnn Kuchera-Morin.
AlloSphere - What we do
The AlloSphere is a three-story facility where we use multiple modalities to represent large and complex data, including immersive visualization, sonification, and interactivity. We are creating technology that will enable experts to use their intuition and experience to examine and interact with complex data to identify patterns, suggest and test theories in an integrated loop of discovery. Important research areas include quantum information processing and structural materials discovery, bioengineering and biogenerative applications, and arts and entertainment. These content areas also drive media systems research in immersive display, computation, and interactivity.
The AlloShere Facility
The AlloSphere is three stories, 26 projectors, & 54.1 Channels of sound. Our facility is differentiated from other virtual reality environments by both its seamless surround-view capabilities and its ability to accommodate large groups of researchers concurrently. Building the AlloSphere was not an off-the-shelf enterprise. Designing a large-scale environment to deliver rich, coherent, interactive, high-resolution 3D video and audio streams from massive scientific datasets is a complex computational and systems engineering task that continues to involve faculty across a variety of disciplines.
A history
Dr. Kuchera-Morin worked with renowned architect Robert Venturi from 2001-2003 to plan the AlloSphere within the 62,000 square foot California NanoSystems Institute building (Elings Hall) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. McKay Conant Hoover, Inc. served as the acoustical consultant firm, while Auerbach and Associates were involved in the visual consulting process. During the extensive meetings with the architects and design consultants the construction plans for the instrument underwent many changes as nothing like this facility had ever been built before.
The AlloSphere: it's a three-story metal sphere in an echo-free chamber. Think of the AlloSphere as a large, dynamically varying digital microscope that's connected to a supercomputer. Twenty (20) researchers can stand on a bridge suspended inside of the sphere, and be completely immersed in their data. Imagine if a team of physicists could stand inside of an atom and watch and hear electrons spin. Imagine if a group of sculptors could be inside of a lattice of atoms and sculpt with their material.Imagine if a team of surgeons could fly into the brain, as though it was a world, and see tissues as landscapes, and hear blood density levels as music. This is some of the research that you're going to see that we're undertaking at the AlloSphere.
Kuchera-Morin, J. (2009, October). Stunning data visualization in the AlloSphere [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/joann_kuchera_morin_stunning_data_visualization_in_the_allosphere
AlloSphere - The team wants to work with you.
As media artists we know that correctly representing complex models and data leads also to increased artistic sophistication. The work we present is only as good as the content it is derived from.
If you are a researcher facing challenges in representing your data, please contact us. We would like to help you look for new patterns in your data and speed time to discovery.
Opportunities to collaborate as a partner
There are numerous philanthropic giving options available to benefit the research and education missions of the AlloSphere. For a major donor there is the opportunity to name the facility and be recognized for your generous support.
The AlloSphere seeks corporate, industry and academic partnerships on short- and long-term collaborative projects. Corporate/industry/university affiliates work alongside UC Santa Barbara faculty and advanced graduate students to conduct basic research, publish results, and showcase their data visually and aurally in the 3D, 360-degree immersive AlloSphere Research Facility.
For more information on giving opportunities, please contact Dr. Kuchera-Morin, the director of the AlloSphere Research Facility. Please contact us at (805) 893-3010 or directly to jkm@create.ucsb.edu.
There are numerous philanthropic giving options available to benefit the research and education missions of the AlloSphere. For a major donor there is the opportunity to name the facility and be recognized for your generous support.
It is also possible to invest in the scientific and artistic efforts of the AlloSphere Research Facility by making a one-time or ongoing tax-deductible donation. Gifts of equipment or software are also welcomed and greatly appreciated.
For more information on giving opportunities, please contact Dr. Kuchera-Morin, the director of the AlloSphere Research Facility. Please contact us at (805) 893-3010 or directly to jkm@create.ucsb.edu.
