In 1972, neurosurgeon Joseph Bogen envisioned a wondrous 60 storey giant walkthrough brain museum. Although it was never constructed, we created the Giant Walkthrough Brain Show: an engaging tour through a virtual 3D brain museum with science speaker Jay Ingram and his band.

The performance alternates between musical performances by the Free Radicals and narration by Jay, while the visuals show a 'virtual tour bus' through the brain.

To create that experience, we started by outlining the locations relevant to the main topics we wanted to discuss. We highlighted them on our 3D model, and organized the tour in a way that enabled interesting and logical transitions between the key locations.

During the show, Jay Ingram and the band would be front and center, while I would guide the virtual tour on the side. I was included on stage to make it feel more like an actual 'tour bus driver' was operating their virtual journey.

To build the interactive visuals we used the Unity game engine. Since the performance was a little different every time, we added controls that let me alter our movement speed, pop up images and videos when required, and make other small changes at runtime.

So far, we have had 8 GWB performances. We hope to one day perform in a space that allows for our visuals to surround the audience and improve their immersive experience.

On the left are mostly members of the LINDAY Virtual Human Team that worked on the visuals. (Left to Right) Top: Dr. Trevor Day, Douglas Yuen, Justin Kelly and Dylan Dobbyn. Bottom: Christian Jacob and Tatiana (Karaman) Funk. Laptop Conference Call: Jay Ingram.

On the right is our on-stage team for the TELUS Spark Science Center performance. (Left to Right) Garth Kennedy, Ben Jackson, Steve Dodd, Jay Ingram, Tatiana (Karaman) Funk, Dr. Trevor Day, Josip Vulic, Nicole Zystra

Photos by Riley Brandt.