Superb Storytelling and Sensory Captivation Set SCADstory Atlanta in Motion

By Carol Badaracco Padgett

The smell is lavender. It’s so subtle it takes several seconds to register. But it’s there, woven in among the animation, projection, lighting, audio and haze that’s immersing visitors into a highly personal telling of President and Founder Paula Wallace’s vision for a new type of arts education at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

The immersive exhibit, “SCADstory Atlanta,” opened in May 2025 and is permanently housed at SCAD on Peachtree Street in Midtown, where it is free and open to the public. At SCAD’s other two campuses — in Savannah, Georgia, and Lacoste, France — there are immersive exhibits, as well, nuanced with their individual campus’s settings.

Yet, at “SCADstory’s” latest opening in Atlanta, the city where Wallace once lived, taught at the primary school level, and dreamed at the collegiate level, the “SCADstory“ experience is singular, warranting an origin story all its own.

“The debut of “SCADstory Atlanta” feels like a homecoming—personally and professionally,” Wallace notes.

Here’s how the 4D “SCADstory Atlanta“ exhibit lives and breathes.

The art and science of immersion

SCAD faculty and students across a range of creative disciplines teamed up with BRC Imagination Arts, a Burbank, California-based strategic design and production company.

There is a natural connection between the two that culminated in the “SCADstory Atlanta“ experience.

Just as SCAD is big on collaboration and regularly aligns itself in partnership with top creative players, products and cultural icons – BMW, Adobe, Reebok, Disney, Chanel, AT&T, Coca-Cola and others, BRC Imagination Arts helps brands translate themselves into cultural stories, with projects like Johnnie Walker Princes Street in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Las Vegas Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium Tour in Las Vegas.

Of the creative partnership on “SCADstory Atlanta,“ Matthew Solari, vice president of creative and story at BRC Imagination Arts, says, “An important part of SCAD’s ethos is to use creativity, imagination and innovation to see infinite possibilities.”

At “SCADstory“ in Midtown, those possibilities entailed telling Wallace’s real-life tale in a way that it touches visitors’ full array of senses, helping the story seep deeply inside each person’s psyche.

“We used projection mapping to make our story magical,” Solari explains. “Guests expect that an object they’re seeing is one thing, and then we create these moments of surprise by completely transforming it into something else.”

He continues, “From a practical standpoint, projection mapping [where moving images are projected onto physical space]allows us to tell an immersive story in a confined space. The audience can’t walk through the story so instead we change the physical environment around them. We’re not just projecting onto flat walls. We’re projecting onto objects, sets and architecture that have dimension.”

At “SCADstory Atlanta,“ all the projection mapping is done with Disguise media servers.

“The media servers contain a digital clone of the real-world environment that was modeled by dandelion + burdock [London and Los Angeles-based crafter of large-scale 3D animations and motion graphics that have adorned everything from the Hoover Dam to Buckingham Palace],” Solari describes. “The accuracy of the digital model is incredibly important for the type of mapping we are doing. The rooms were laser scanned, and all the projection elements are modeled within a millimeter of their real-world location.”

The projectors used for Atlanta’s “SCADstory“ exhibit are a combination of Panasonic and Epson.

Solari says, “Projectors and lenses were specifically designed with ultra-short throw lenses to hide the source of light from visitors. All the projectors were professionally color calibrated by TechMDinc to match broadcast standard colors. This color calibration process creates a seamless canvas between projector blends and overlaps.”

Read: visitors to the exhibit stay immersed in the story and don’t get distracted by the technology that’s telling it.

“The media is all UV mapped,” Solari notes. “UV mapping is a technique commonly used in video game development where 3D objects are wrapped in a digital texture designed specifically for each 3D mesh. We are essentially doing the same thing, just in reverse, where the projected image wraps around real objects.”

And he adds, “The mapping at ‘SCADstory Atlanta‘ is within one pixel of accuracy. This UV mapping workflow allowed BRC Imagination Arts to design Paula Wallace’s placement on every media canvas and gave TechMDinc the ability to map the content as intended.”

Along with the UV mapping workflow, BRC employed additional techniques for different environments.

“Using layered files, we placed Paula Wallace and other visual effects precisely where we wanted them,” Solari explains. “This was achieved using Notch blocks and 3D models created by dandelion + burdock and UV mapping by TechMDinc., in close collaboration with our animation and VFX partners at Eyebolls and Henchmen.”

He continues, “We used Disguise and Notch to drive real-time virtual lighting effects, designed by Manny Treeson of NYXdesign, that seamlessly integrate with the environment. Josh Selander programmed the lighting system with absolute precision, allowing our team to blend real and virtual lighting cues in ways that feel natural and emotional. In a compact, immersive space like ‘SCADstory Atlanta,‘ that fusion is what brings the world to life. It lets the story shimmer, breathe, and respond like a living thing.”

And the lavender scent?

“There are three Antari scent machines (SCN-600),” Solari explains. “Each is individually controlled by the lighting system via DMX. There is a DMX-controlled variable speed fan near each scent machine that is timed to distribute the scent at a precise moment in the show.”

Making each moment a storyteller

The best stories require brilliant writers. For the “SCADstory Atlanta“ voiceover of Paula Wallace, writers were Solari and Caitlin Sprague, alongside SCAD writer, story consultant, and alumnus Executive Dean Harrison Scott Key.

“Working closely with Executive Dean Harrison Scott Key, as well as drawing inspiration from direct conversations with SCAD President and Founder Paula Wallace, BRC Imagination Arts crafted a new entry point into the SCAD narrative,” Solari says, who also served as story lead. “Designed especially for prospective students, the experience connects SCAD’s visionary mission to the energy and opportunity of Atlanta—a city of reinvention, resilience, and boundless creativity.”

For Wallace, the opening of “SCADstory Atlanta“ represents her dream coming full circle.

“As we celebrate SCAD Atlanta’s 20^th anniversary, ‘SCADstory’s’ immersive 4D experience honors our past and confidently points to the future,” she says.

Solaris adds, “In ‘SCADstory Atlanta,’ every element was carefully choreographed to support the story’s emotional arc and maximize impact within a highly efficient footprint and a 20-minute format. The result is a powerful, immersive journey that transforms a small space into a gateway of imagination. It bridges personal ambition with institutional purpose, allowing each guest to see themselves in SCAD’s story—and envision how SCAD can help shape their own.”

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BRC Imagination Arts SCADstory Atlanta Team + Vendors:

Matthew Solari, Co-Creative Director, Story Lead

Edward Hodge, Co-Creative Director, Show Director

Stephen Strosin, Media Director

Steven Farnsworth, Producer

Marci Carlin, Executive Producer

Marissa Wayne, Technical Director

Linus Gruszewski, Lead Show Set Designer

Rhoi-Glen Carpena, Production Design Lead & Art Director

Evanthia Kyriakopulos, Production Graphic Designer

James Hegedus, Media Art Director

Jack Tippler, Media Coordinator

Brendan Griffin, Production Coordinator

Ken Culver, Production Coordination Support

Anthony Onibon, Concept Spatial Planner

Michael Reyes, Concept Experience Designer

John King, Concept Art Director

Richard Procter, Concept Writer

Yealin Charlie Park, Storyboard Artist

Celia Kendrick Weiss, Storyboard Artist

Bernard Semerdjian, Graphic Design Support

Emma Wood, Graphic Design Support

Leone Ermer, Graphic Design Support

Steve Chon, Concept Illustrator

Isabela Ospina, Concept Environmental Designer

Steve Taylor, Project Accountant

Karan Russell, Business Affairs

Doug Sarver, Controller

Tom Seib, Chief Financial Officer

Christian Lachel, Chief Creative Officer

Carmel Lewis, President

Bob Rogers, Founder & Chairman

 

Sub-Vendors:

Black Wolf Productions

Clearwing Systems Integration

dandelion + burdock, LLC

digiLED (HK) Ltd.

EarsUp Sound Design

Emery & Associates

Entech Innovative

Erik Desiderio Music

Eyebolls ltd.

Henchmen

id3 Group

Michail by Michail Sykianakis

NYXdesign

Rose Brand

Stimulant

TechMDinc

X-Laser