Cardiff-based multimedia studio 4Pi Productions celebrates its 10th birthday on International Pi Day, March 14, with an arts and networking event at their immersive arts venue CULTVR Lab in Cardiff.
The free event will celebrate a decade of cultural immersion and creative innovation, featuring art installations, screenings of 4Pi’s award-winning 360-degree films, exclusive announcements and more.
Set up a decade ago by international multidisciplinary artists Matt Wright and Janire Nájera, 4Pi merges the boundaries between art, design and technology to make shared immersive experiences, with a strong focus on 360-degree domes that place audiences at the centre of the narrative.
The pair originally met while at the University of South Wales, Newport, where Janire was studying documentary photography and Matt was studying photographic art. They collaborated on several successful art projects and started investigating the use of immersive and interactive technologies in their work.
As well as using these technologies in their own creative explorations, they started collaborating with clients and other like-minded organisations to provide new and engaging ways to reach out to audiences – and so 4Pi was born.
Ten years on, 4Pi has a core team of six, backed by a collaborative network of hundreds.
“Our core team is kept purposely small while nurturing and supporting a wide network of tried and tested freelancers and collaborators who are brought in for the given projects requirements,” says Matt. “This approach is based on our past experience and track record of providing a constantly broad and ever-diversifying range of services, products and experiences, often at the cutting edge of technologically driven audience-focused cultural engagement activities.”
4Pi founded CULTVR Lab on Penarth Road in Cardiff five years ago with the aim of further exploring XR and immersive media and making immersive arts more accessible to all.
“It provides substantial opportunities for local, national and international artists, musicians, performers, researchers and producers to explore this emerging medium, creating new immersive work and providing opportunities to present it to live audiences,” says Janire.
The anniversary event on March 14 will celebrate the team’s many successes so far, including creating multiple award-winning 360-degree films, taking its immersive contemporary dance experience, The Dance Dome, to 30 cities worldwide, creating immersive experiences at Cadw locations, making CULTVR Lab a centre for cutting-edge arts events in Cardiff, and hosting the Fulldome UK festival, the longest running immersive arts festival in the UK.
“When we started our journey within this space, we were the true underdogs,” says Matt. “We had to learn through sheer experimentation and naive enthusiasm and undertake a creative journey of our own making as the creative path in front of us was unwritten. We have produced four films to date as part of this platform, and in each case, we have been honoured to receive international awards and recognition for our innovative work in this emerging medium.
“Our aim now is to keep innovating and creating engaging projects and platforms at home and internationally. This year will see us tour our most recent XR live performance to Canada with our immersive documentary film being screened at festivals and planetariums worldwide. We also have some very exciting commercial projects in the pipeline that will see us continue to push the boundaries of immersive technologies and the unique form of storytelling that they facilitate. Later in the year we are delighted to be welcoming back Fulldome UK to Wales for the second year in a row after its resounding success last year.”
Janire adds that as it heads into its next decade, 4Pi is committed to staying true to its founding principles:
“Ultimately, we aim to not lose sight of why we started the business, which is that fundamentally financial profitability is less important than making a positive social difference, and in that vein we will continue to throw all of our efforts and resources into supporting our research facility, CULTVR Lab, to continue supporting the wider Welsh community in embracing and engaging with the transformative possibilities of cultural immersion.”
The 10th Birthday celebration takes place on March 14 from 5 to 8 pm at CULTVR Lab, 327 Penarth Road, Cardiff CF11 8TT.
