Sphere Entertainment Co. announced a special Exosphere content show in celebration of Earth Day featuring work from multi-GRAMMY Award-winning Grateful Dead and Dead & Company percussionist Mickey Hart, and renowned filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg.
Hart’s and Schwartzberg’s artwork were combined into an 11-minute content show.Their art ran individually at various times throughout the day as well.
Hart and Schwartzberg were the latest artists to design for the Exosphere as part of Sphere’s XO/Art program, which featured renowned artists’ work on Sphere’s immersive exterior.
Our XO/Art program continued to make art available and accessible to the public in a highly innovative and unique way, both in Las Vegas and around the world. Mickey Hart and Louie Schwartzberg are artists who utilized novel techniques to not only create impactful visuals but also tell important stories, and we were proud to feature their immersive work in a first-of-its-kind show on the Exosphere to celebrate Earth Day, said Jennifer Koester, President, Sphere Business Operations at Sphere Entertainment.
“I always felt that music had the power to connect us to the rhythms of the Earth and the universe”, said Mickey Hart. “The Sphere project was my attempt to harness those rhythms and create something that spoke to the interconnectedness of all life. It was a visual representation of the rhythms and energies that inspired me. It was like a beat in a song, creating layers of texture and emotion on the canvas. Earth Day should have reminded us that we were all part of a vast, cosmic symphony, and that it was our responsibility to care for this planet and all its inhabitants”.
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I was excited to share nature’s wonders on the largest canvas on Earth. These sequences made the invisible visible by exploring the foundations of Life. We started with Earth’s majestic landscapes, to soil-making fungi, to flowers and their pollinators, all of which propelled life to flourish. When assembled together, they told the magical story of unseen worlds that sustained Life on Earth. This was the greatest story to tell on Earth Day. Let’s celebrate Life, said Louie Schwartzberg.
Hart’s piece, entitled Rhythms of the Universe, was a 10-second visual symphony consisting of four phases, each characterized by unique movements and color patterns. From gentle undulations and ripples to vibrant color shifts and morphing shapes, the progression of phases was an exploration of a psychedelic cosmos. Hart, an expert in sound vibrations from his experience as a drummer, used sound waves and their vibrations to move paint around on his canvases.
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To create the details and intricate patterns in his Exosphere piece, a Pythagorean monochord was played through a subwoofer whose ultra-low frequencies induced vibrations that brought the artwork to life. Through this artistic method, the paints underwent a metamorphosis, allowing the flow of colors to manifest in a myriad of ways.
For his six, 10-second Exosphere pieces, Schwartzberg went back to his documentarian roots, drawing from nature footage and utilizing his renowned time-lapse photography technique. The first piece, titled Earth Masterpieces, featured coral reefs, ocean views, waterfalls, and desert canyons. This was followed by a segment on mushrooms, featuring never-before-seen footage of lion’s mane and other species captured during the making of his 2011 documentary film, Fantastic Fungi. Next, Seductive Flowers captured the graceful movement of various blooms up-close, followed by Master Pollinators, which highlighted the crucial role birds and bees played in the ecosystem. In the final two segments, Organic Mandalas, transformed nature imagery into intricate circles that represented the cycle of life, and Nature Reimagined, took viewers on a transcendent journey through time and space.
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Multi-GRAMMY Award-winner Mickey Hart was best known as a drummer/percussionist for the Grateful Dead, and more recently as a member of Dead & Company which played 24 shows at Sphere this spring and summer. Hart was also an accomplished writer, painter, explorer, and expert on the history and methodology of drums. Over the years, Hart’s work extended beyond playing music to ventures including advocating for music and rhythm as therapy, and actively participating in environmental advocacy. Hart’s groundbreaking painting technique – vibrational expressionism – merged art and music by using sound waves to manipulate paint.
Schwartzberg was an award-winning cinematographer, director, and producer renowned for his ability to capture the beauty of the natural world. He earned acclaim for his expertise in time-lapse photography, showcasing the intricate details and wonders of nature in his films. Through his work, Schwartzberg explored themes of environmental conservation and the interconnectedness of life, aiming to inspire audiences with the diversity of the Earth. His portfolio included a range of projects, from documentaries to commercial ventures, each infused with his unique visual style and passion for storytelling. Schwartzberg's dedication to his craft garnered him numerous awards and accolades from the filmmaking community.
Since the Exosphere was first illuminated on July 4, 2023, it captured worldwide attention for its impactful visuals. The largest LED screen on Earth, the Exosphere consisted of approximately 1.2 million LED pucks, spaced eight inches apart. Each puck contained 48 individual LED diodes, with each diode capable of displaying more than 1 billion different colors – creating a vivid landmark on the Las Vegas skyline.
