NC Nature Research Center to feature 'very unusual' theater

Raleigh, N.C. — The new wing of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences opens next month, and one of the biggest features will be The Daily Planet Theater.

It's part of the new Nature Research Center and is “a very unusual space – kind of a spherical theater,” according to designer Elle Kamihira.

Kamihira is with Batwin and Robin, a New York design firm putting together the videos and sounds that visitors will see and hear inside The Daily Planet. She says it will be a different kind of theater experience.

“You walk into it, and there are these 45-second to one-minute ambient video pieces that play,” she said.

Visitors can absorb 30 million pixels of scenes and stories about nature, science and research in North Carolina. The designers used North Carolina photographers and videographers to capture high-resolution images of the state's natural wonders. Surround-sound completes the experience.

Guest speakers will also use the theater for presentations, and every public school in North Carolina will be able to watch over the Web. The Nature Research Center opens April 20 and will showcase labs and exhibits in all fields of science.

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While all this sounds cool, I shudder to think how much taxpayer money went into this. Even a taxpayer-funded grant to a private facility could have done this less expensively. - ncpilot2

Shudder not, a great deal of the funding for this addition comes from private and corporate donations. You really should visit when it opens. I think you'd be impressed, and proud to know your state has such a world-class science museum, and that so many school kids may be inspired to pursue science as a career.

Platinum
March 23, 2012 7:53 p.m.

While all this sounds cool, I shudder to think how much taxpayer money went into this. Even a taxpayer-funded grant to a private facility could have done this less expensively.

ncpilot2
March 23, 2012 5:25 p.m.