Wads of sketches and calculations in hand, we were ready to cut the plastic. We first made each panel according to our design and following a taped pattern. My seamstress skills really helped out in this pattern-development stage.
Drome Panel Pattern
MDB Cutting the Drome by Ben Walsh
We cut six individual panels and began seaming. Seaming was difficult, as we had to lay the panels front to front in order to seam from the inside using the airtight method devised by Mr. Dwyer. There was a lot of plastic dragging involved and confused screams from inside the plastic mass.
We made the six seams and were stuck as to how to proceed with the top. We eventually decided that a hexagon would be the strongest way to connect the six panels, instead of a circle as we had originally planned. We left a section open for the door and decided not to seam the bottom. At this point in our design, we intended to construct an aluminum ring to provide structure for the dome at its base. We then intended to turn the bottom flaps into a floor, so the whole structure would be airtight. We later abandoned this for a floorless method, in which we weighted the aluminum rim.
The 'DROME was constructed and ready for our first inflation test. On Wednesday before the DROME date we inflated the structure on the Weitz patio.
Carrying the DROME
"Oh PLEASE let it work!"
"It's working!!!"
Celebratory Stacking with John Schott
We had the site, the structure, the technology, and an action plan. Saturday, October 26th, DROME building began at 11:30 AM.
Cathy and Sky in Morgan's Trunk
A Beautiful Day to Build a DROME by Jackson Hudgins
The First of Three Inflation Tests by Jackson Hudgins
Inflation by Jackson Hudgins
Please Drome, BEHAVE
The problems we ran into during this phase of construction were numerous. At our first inflation test, we had all three blowers in the same spot. This caused uneven inflation and internal air pressure that fluctuated too wildly to regulate by opening and closing the door. We spread the blowers out to three separate positions. Then, the second inflation test showed that we did not have enough weight on the rim and the plastic was not securely fastened to the aluminum rim. We refastened the plastic and stole some kettlebells from the Rec Center for extra weight (we returned them don't worry). We tried to inflate the dome again but in the stage before it was fully inflated, the wind turned it into a sail and it nearly blew away several times. When the dome was fully inflated, there was still not enough weight on the rim. We got some concrete blocks from Menards and ran to the Weitz for more sandbags. We hoped that the wind would die down as the sun went down and tried again with a extra reinforced rim.
Throughout all of these setbacks and unexpected problems, the DROME team had an unfailingly positive attitude. Tanwaporn Ohl acted as DROME mother and provided our hungry construction workers with bagels and tacos. Helpers such as Morgan Marks, Lauren Partch, Jackson Hudgins, Zed Fashina, Jon Ver Steegh, Nora Gregor, and others were greatly appreciated as the DROME team grew tired and frustrated. Brit Fryer and Ashanti Soldier worked hard for the DROME even though they had both played rugby games earlier in the day. We did not give up and the DROME was fully inflated by sundown. We began moving in our electronic equipment for visuals and audio and hoped that the weather would not take a turn for the worse. We knew our job was not over yet and we could not open the champagne until everything was ready.
Preliminary video testing began around 8pm. Woody had built stands for the three projectors and the mirrordome. We arranged all of our equipment inside and prayed that Isadora would come through in our time of need. Soundcheck began at 9pm. Peter Briggs, Jon Ver Steegh, Curtis Vamarasi, Nora Gregor, and other members of the bands were invaluable in their audio technology skills. They arrived with their amps and instruments and got right to work.
Security arrived and were briefed on their positions. They had by far the most difficult job that night, as there were around 70 people in line to get into the DROME at one point. I received many phone calls from my friends asking to be let in early or to skip the line, but we had to be fair to all attendees. Starting around 10, no one besides the DROME team and musicians were let into the dome.
At 10:30, we shut the DROME down for a preshow silence period. We wanted there to be a dramatic start at 11 when we opened the doors and let the first guests in. It was only then that we popped the champagne corks.
Sky's Video Test
Max Thunderdome Soundcheck
Security Team Members in the Mirrordome
Head of Security
The event itself began at 11pm. Max Thunderdome played first, with visuals by Woody Kaine. Woody controlled the visuals in Isadora using a midi drum pad. At 11:30, Ashantology played and Schuyler's visuals ran. My favorite part of Sky's visuals was when pills fell from the sky. At midnight, my band, Prom Queef played. The visuals Haley Ryan and I developed played. We synced the visuals to specific song structure sections and thematically linked the images to the songs. Playing in the DROME was the experience of a lifetime. I was so worried that the audience would mosh during our set, as they usually do, but everyone was extremely well behaved. Our visuals looked great, despite some freezing and image abstraction due to unexpected speed considerations. We designed the visuals on a small, 2D computer screen. In doing so, we did not account for the speed differential that was created when we enlarged the images to fit the dome. Some images that moved slowly on the computer screen looked to be moving very quickly on the dome. I don't really understand the science behind this, but it kind of makes sense somehow. At 12:30 AM djbritheartbeats took the stage to spin some tracks with visual accompaniment by Andrew Cely. The crowd thinned out and we shut the drome down at 1am.
I was not able to take many photos during the event, as I was engrossed in the experience and on the spot problem solving. Crowd control was a huge part of the night. Air regulation was also important. We had to inspect the dome at the rim constantly to make sure that the internal air pressure was not going too great. If the weights on the rim appeared to be lifting, we opened the door to let people in and out and control air pressure. We also played around with regulating the speed of the blowers in timed increments. The dome, thankfully, behaved and it neither collapsed nor blew away.
The following photos were taken by John Schott. Video will be added soon.
Within 24 hours after the DROME concluded, we were informed by Professore Schott that our project sparked interest from the Minneapolis/St.Paul International Film Festival and the Northern Spark Festival. Our DROME journey is far from over. Plans to expand and improve the MEDIADROME are in the works now. We plan to eventually cover all of the contiguous United States in a giant MEDIADROME and indoctrinate all citizens of the DROMENATION into the ways of the DROME.
This concludes the technical narrative of the MEDIADROME. My next post will be a reflection on the event informed by Site-Specific Media research and the intellectual history of dome New Media structures.
MEDIADROME
mdb
