This joint rocks back

WHEN R. Buckminster Fuller patented the geodesic dome in 1954, the visionary thinker probably never thought it could be used as a musical instrument.

But that’s exactly what Billy Close has made of it.

Close is artistic director of the MASS Music Dome project, a 90-minute show that premieres tonight and runs for 10 performances through Dec. 11 at the Santa Monica Pier.

“The concept is to put the audience inside the instrument,” Close said during a tech set-up this week.

The dome is 60 feet in diameter and about 30 feet tall. Its skin works as a resonating surface for hundreds of strings and harp wires on the interior and exterior. It also serves as a canvas for 360-degree projections that accompany the music, with room for an audience of 350 who can stand or choose some upscale “Fatboy” bean-bag-like chairs. (There is also a second, smaller dome that serves as a lounge and pre-show introduction.)

The show, which features seven performers playing 11 instruments, is a collaboration among Close’s MASS (Music, Architecture, Sound and Sculpture) Ensemble; DomeWorks, which builds geodesic domes; and o2 Creative Solutions, an “experience design” firm.

But the creative force behind the show is Close, a New York native who studied sculpture and sound design at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1988 to 1992 and began building his own musical instruments there.

“I created an instrument called the Earth Harp,” he said. “The first one, we attached resonating chambers to one side of a valley outside Chicago and the strings went 1,000 feet to the other side. So the Earth was an instrument.

“Once the Earth Harp was created, the idea of attaching it to architecture and turning the architecture into the instrument was fascinating. In this case, this gave us a situation with the geodesic dome. The whole building resonates with the sound, and that’s totally of interest to us.”

Other instruments you’ll hear at the show bear such evocative names as Chime Goddess, Drum Cloud, Wing Harp and Drum Orb.

“I always try to push the visual connection to music,” Close said. “For one thing, I develop instruments that make the performer move. Traditionally, a lot of the instruments in the world are more about sitting very still, whereas all these pieces make the performer move. So the act of playing is like a dance.”

Said associate artistic director and performer Andrea Brook: “The Wing Harp looks like a wing, a butterfly wing. Bill created that piece for me. I used to do quite a bit of aerial work, where I would be suspended and play the strings from the air and do aerial dances. So he invented the Wing Harp to create a feeing of aerial without my having to go aerial.

“The wing itself is suspended and as I play it, it moves, and I move with it. It’s challenging.”

The music of the show spans a range of styles.

“The long-string instruments have a very symphonic feel to them,” Brook said. “Then we have a rock drummer, a rock guitar player and one of the most rocking violinists I’ve heard. So they definitely have brought in that rock ‘n’ roll feel.”

Other pieces draw from jazz, world music and pop.

“We try to create music that’s going to appeal to everybody,” Brook said. “We want our audiences to range from age 2 to 102.”

One of the songs, “Right Down to You,” is an unreleased work written by filmmaker David Lynch and vocalist Chrysta Bell. (The Sunday performance will be a fundraiser for the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, which promotes Transcendental Meditation.)

As all the pieces play, projected graphics travel across the inside of the dome.

“We call it animated architecture,” said Jody Levy, an o2 Creative Solutions director.

“In one scene, people will see a beautifully illustrated flower bloom and transform into a dragonfly and fly above the surface of the dome.

“In another, they’ll see a sunrise and a sunset in very graphic, very designed format, that fills and travels through the entire surface.”

The company uses five projectors and an optical blending system cued to the notes played on the instruments.

“The playing physically drives the animation across the entire dome, breathing life into the architectural structure,” Levy said. “What we do is based on experiential design, bringing together multimedia designs in nontraditional ways to tell stories and touch the senses.”

Said Close: “The visuals really transform the whole space into another environment. All of a sudden you’re sitting in a landscape.”

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MASS Music Dome

Where: Santa Monica Pier

When: 8 p.m. today, Friday, Saturday, and Wednesday through Dec. 10; 7 p.m. Sunday; 6 p.m. Dec. 11

Price: $30 to $50; $75, for Sunday’s fundraiser

Info: (888) 512-7469; massmusicdome.com