Sci-Fi Story for Planetarium Dome Presentation
The Foundation Herbert W. Franke is proud to announce that we have commissioned renowned fulldome multimedia artist Sergey Prokofyev to create a 15-minute multimedia work. It is based on the story A Leap into the Void, the English translation of Franke’s 1995 short story A Leap into the Void. The 8K production, which can then be shown alternatively immersively on a flat screen or in a fulldome dome, will be completed by the end of February 2026. The first step in production has now been completed: the story, narrated in English by Eric George Asch, was recently recorded at Vellocet Audio in Aachen with sound engineer Maximilian Kappl.
The short story by Franke, who was described by the FAZ as a “short story pyrotechnician,” is one of more than 200 stories that the author has written since 1960. The plot of A Leap into the Void, which dates from 1995: A prophet encourages a group of people to jump into a fog-shrouded abyss. His message: “You will fly! You just have to believe!” Frederik is one of them. But despite the prophet’s convincingly releated message, Frederik remains filled with doubt. He is certain that humans cannot fly and will therefore fall to the ground. Everyone else has now jumped, following the prophet’s wish. Now the prophet turns directly to Frederik and tells him to jump too. But he resists the prophet – and in a surprising twist, it becomes clear that Frederik is not in reality at all, but in a virtual world. He was the only one who resisted the prophet’s attempt at manipulation and thus passed the test.
At the end of the story, Frederik remembers this event of his former life, which helped him achieve a great career. Now sick and old, at the end of his life he wonders whether there might also be a third, unlikely possibility of another existence in another world.
Listen to a one-minute cut featuring Eric, the new English voice of Franke’s stories.
The story revolves around the conflict between belief and knowledge, ultimately raising the big question of humanity: Is there a creator, or do we live in a programmed universe? This is an unusual but nevertheless possible model of the world, presented from a great storyteller about our future. The plot is closely related to the philosophical ideas about nature that Franke published in his 1995 book The P-Principle. It is part of the Edition Herbert W. Franke, which is currently in preparation.
The foundation has a total of three such stories by Franke in the works. The Green Comet, a story about the end of the world in which no humans act, but only a thinking cosmic being, dates from 1960 and is largely realized with purely abstract generative art. The main story of The Evolution Game from 1995 is visualized in a very minimalist way flighing slowly through space, so that the viewer can concentrate fully on the plot. The foundation wants to explore different multimedia implementations of narrated stories for the fulldome.
Finally, the foundation’s special thanks go to Micky Remann from Jena Fulldome Festival and Ryan Moore from Dome Fest West. They welcomed the foundation, a fulldome greenhorn, so warmly into the fulldome community a few months ago. Paving the way to the foundation’s enthusiasm entering this new world of the dome.