Theatre

Last year I kind of did something like this, and as someone pretty relentlessly focused on the future, it’s refreshing to take a moment to reflect. Whoooosh!

ANNUAL PROJECT 2015:

Watch Alex Coulombe Talk Stuff! in which I chronicled my activities on a weekly basis to chart the transition from not-fatherhood to fatherhood  – 48 episodes

(2013 was a Daily Journal & 2014 was my Productive Commuter blog & 2016 will be Watch Alex Coulombe Learn Stuff)

ARCHITECTURE:

• Worked on a Jacobean (Shakespearean-style) theater in London
• Punch-listed the Gaillard Center (one of my very first FDA projects!) in Charleston, SC
• Worked with the Park Avenue Armory on Tree of Codes, De Materie, Abromovic Goldberg, a Mezzanine study, and a Gala Event (I’m particularly proud of getting the Armory folks excited about VR).
• Studied preliminary designs for David Geffen Hall before the official architect selection.
• Developed an interactive model to study the grid for Culture Shed,
• Used both theaters in the Wisconsin School of Music as high-functioning VR test subjects
• Began working with Threshold Acoustics to integrate their audio solutions into my VR models for Rice Opera House.
• Also worked on theater designs for the Screen Actors Guild Foundation’s new screening room, MIT, Columbia, NYU, MoMA, Great Lakes Center in Bayharbor, XIQU Center in West Kowloon, Southern Utah University, Battersea Power Station, and more!

VIRTUAL REALITY:

• Developed a kickass Google Cardboard VR workflow for both Android and iPhone that makes it easy to take VR on the road!
• Made VR a part of a lot of our design meetings, nearly supplanting Powerpoints!
• Wrote an article for Fractured Atlas about how to get started with VR development on Android phones
• Gave talks on VR at the NYC VR Meetup at the Microsoft Building, Opera America 2015, Bjarke Ingels Group, FMS’s Holiday Party, and for Brian Lonsway’s Studio during their site visit to NYC
  • Was super honored to serve as a guest critic for Brian’s studio finals at the Syracuse University School of Architecture
• Despite Oculus deciding to discontinue support for laptops (in particular, Optimus laptops), I devised a way to get a smooth 75 fps experience on my office’s MSI Ghost Pro GS60
• For Christmas, my wife got me a Myo Armband, and I briefly played with adding it into my Unity VR workflow
• Made a joke app for April Fools
• Developed an app to help place digital projectors in the Ed Sullivan Theater for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
• Began work with Equinox to develop rendering, panoramic VR, and interactive VR visualizations for their gyms

VIDEO:

Vulture/NYMag

• Spider-Gwen Fake Movie Trailer (check out the press)
• The Wig Short (The Big Short Parody Trailer)
• 1990s Flash fights Flash of Today

Personal

• Six Feet Under Style Parks and Rec Finale
• Wolverine vs Dr. Octopus
• Why Electro Hates Spider-man
• Daily Commute Timelapse

Cracked.com

• Various involvement throughout the year (over 30 projects!)
  • Had particular fun making a time machine for Alex Schmidt‘s final New Guy Weekly episode

GAMES:

• Released the boardgame, Terra Neo: Deluxe!
• Co-developed my first VR game, Tiger9, as part of Global Game Jam 2015
• Logged playing MGSV on my commute for Watch Alex Play Stuff

STORYTELLING:

• In honor of the 10th year anniversary of my first play, La Salle d’Or, I released the entire DVD as an interactive youtube experience
• Updated Poof!, my play about a woman who suspects her guy might be a superhero
• Began outlining a libretto for OnSite Opera, in which we hope to use VR as part of the production
• Was interviewed by Syracuse University’s ‘The Newshouse’ about the formation of WhAT Theater, still going strong 9 years later!
• Pitched a Fast and the Furious Christmas movie (to no one in particular)

MUSIC:

• How to play New Haven by Chadwick Stokes
• How to play Our Lives, Our Time by Chadwick Stokes
• La Salle d’Or Soundtrack (10 year anniversary edition)

LIFE:

• Over the holiday break, James, Stevie, Kelsey, and I worked on renovating my garage
• Oh hey, on August 19, 2015 my wife gave birth to our first child, Alasdair!

In 2016 I predict VR permeating every one of those categories– I see a revolution on the horizon. See you in early 2017!