Into the wormhole _{by Madelaine Empson}

XYZZY (pronounced ‘zizz-zee’, rhymes with Lizzie) “was conceived as a musical film, or like a whole album’s worth of music videos, one after another”, director and co-creator Simon Ward says. The 40-minute animated movie was designed for the fulldome planetarium screen and features hand-drawn compositions by artist Jess Johnson that Simon translated into animations and set to 90s-inspired electronic synthesiser tracks from musicians Andrew Clarke, Luke Rowell, Stef Animal, and Lachlan Anderson. Flesh mandalas and worms undulate, alien deities reign, hallucinogenic patterns postulate, architecture self-replicates and self-replicates and self-replicates…

“It was amazing designing for the planetarium screen,” Simon says. “Jess and I have made virtual reality artworks before so we’re used to translating her artwork into spatial environments, but the great thing about the dome cinema is that it’s so social… VR being so individual.”

After a few “too many months making the film and testing it in the headset”, Simon had no idea how XYZZY would look in fulldome cinema. Luckily, the first test blew him away – “such a wide field of view and magical immersive realism at that scale”.

Simon says the “fantastic” name was conceived by Luke, who knew it from Colossal Cave Adventure. In the text-based early computer game, ‘XYZZY’ is a magic word that, when typed, instantly transports the player to another part of the game.

“Really perfect for the 40-minute wormhole into the world Jess has created with her art.”

The soundtrack of the award-winning planetarium film is being released on vinyl with a special event at Space Place on the 15^th of August. As well as live music performances from Stef Animal, Eyeliner (Luke Rowell), and Lachlan Anderson, audiences can enjoy planetarium screenings of XYZZY that wrap up with an artist talk from Simon.