Created specifically for the SPACE METAXIS media festival at Planetarium.1 in St. Petersburg, Russia—the world's largest planetarium—ANIMIND is an immersive audio-visual experience designed for fulldome projection. The project was organized by the media lab OPUS111 in collaboration with Sky University and Anastasia Skabölkina.
The narrative is deeply rooted in Animistic beliefs, exploring the spiritual connection between all living beings, places, and objects. The visuals and soundscape draw inspiration from water, botanical structures, minerals, and microscopic life, blending them with tribal elements to create a timeless, transcendental journey. A central motif of the work is the abstract mask—an essential element of Animism—which gazes back at the viewer through hollow eye holes, challenging the boundary between the observer and the observed.
The work invites the audience to travel beyond physical constraints, evoking a "melting" sensation of becoming part of the natural world. Technically, the project utilized high-fidelity real-time rendering and was recognized by Notch VFX for its sophisticated use of procedural motion and environmental storytelling within a 360-degree dome environment.
