no. 14 — Social Studies: Sphere
on brain explosions, the fine line between awe & terror, and Scott Galloway’s K trip
Welcome to Social Studies, a series exploring unique design projects by connecting the creator and consumer perspective.
Enter: Sphere, one of the largest scale immersive experiences in history. (Also what Scott Galloway recently used to describe his first experience with ketamine therapy.)
A huge thank you to Kyter Steffes at ICRAVE, whose team designed the interior architecture and lighting of Sphere, to Bonnie Cao for her input on production, and to everyone who shared their experience attending a live performance.
From the creators
MRJ: Part of the inspiration behind this Social Studies series was realizing that the concept of a “fourth wall,” which is usually reserved for traditional performance arts, can actually exist across most creative projects and hospitality experiences. Social Studies is an attempt to tell a story that bridges both sides of the wall.
Kyter Steffes: It’s really interesting you say that. One of the core aspects of Sphere, especially reflecting back on the project, has been the idea of where that fourth wall is located and what that means. In actuality we moved the fourth wall – moved the proscenium element – from the stage to the front door. So when you're in the space, you're inhabiting the same stage as the performer or the director. And whenever there is a major shift like that, it takes a bit of audience education to adapt and to learn how to behave in the new context. What it means to me is that the audience tells the story just as much as the person or group that’s on the stage. And that’s a really exciting time for immersive.
I want to dig further into that, but let’s first step back to the concepting stages of the project. Sphere is obviously a first of its kind experience in a lot of ways, one of which is this unique interplay between the exterior (Exosphere) and the interior. How did that feed into how your team thought about defining where the user experience and interaction with Sphere actually begins?
KS: We looked at whatever precedents you could find that would, in part or in whole, give data points for how the story might be told. One of those in particular that was very important to me was a building in 1959 by Le Corbusier and his lead architect who is most well-known now as a musical composer, Iannis Xenakis. The building was called the Philips Pavilion and it's kind of known now as the birthplace of electronic music.
It was only up for six months in Brussels for the World's Fair, but it was an immersive experience through and through. They were projecting onto the walls. They had I think 500-plus speakers from the Philips corporation that were used as instruments and they had a composer, Edgard Varèse, come in and actually write a piece of music that fit the space and participants' experience. It was something like eight minutes and 20 seconds, and as you went through, you'd see content on the walls.
Looking at that experience kind of helped (or helped me at least) understand that the user/audience/occupant’s experience really starts at that front door and then becomes an additive process. But we're also in a world where it's really difficult to separate your phone from real life space, so I’d actually argue that the Sphere experience starts on the phone.
I just asked someone who was at Sphere for the Darren Aronofsky show the same question, and he said it starts as soon as you're on the flight into Vegas because you see it outside your airplane window.
KS: Yeah, I love that. The other point of reference would be the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. And Nashville is the city where live music was first played on the radio and that changed a lot of stuff right? Before that, you were limited because there’s a linear path of travel and you get a decay at 2.1 seconds. So you’d have to limit the audience to preserve good acoustics because musicians are depending on that acoustic feedback to inform how they play. In 1926 you're shifting to live music over the radio reaching millions rather than thousands of people. It changed the way that music was written and performed because all of a sudden, you’re performing to an audience that's not in the room with you. So how can that evolution a hundred years ago in Nashville be applied to something like the internet or live music or a metaverse context? It's hard to predict how those things happen, but it’s important to recognize that's what's happening.
Can you speak more about how much you wanted or needed to direct the user once they’re inside Sphere? With the screen enveloping you, it kind of manipulates the idea of where the focal point should be. Curious what you did architecturally or with lighting or otherwise to direct audience focus versus letting them wander freely.
KS: Yeah, it's important to let people be comfortable wandering freely. You live in New York, so I'm sure you've been to Sleep No More, which is a wonderful example of successful immersive theater. Because you're walking into a jazz club environment where you may be interacting with the actors or you may not be, and then you go and get your mask, and then you go and wander. And the moment that's really really important is to be able to walk into a room and be like wait a minute — am I in it?
So there's a couple ways to answer what you're asking, but one that's really critical in Sphere is thinking about the edges of the experience.
So this would be like, how does someone who is neurodivergent (which is one in five people) or someone who doesn't process information visually and spatially the same way going to experience the project. And can we help them do so in a way that is just as if not more meaningful to them than a general audience member?
Very few people probably see this but…during the performance, when the bowl is activated, we also have a special lighting sequence that's happening in the atrium. We worked with a nonprofit called KultureCity to identify a particular hue that is calming for people with neurodivergent tendencies. And then they have sensory rooms within the building where they provide various things like blue light goggles, some Spinners plugs and some headphones so that you can tailor your experience to be the most comfortable possible.
Thanks for sharing that. That kind of context helps you appreciate how much intentionality goes into the design… The idea of dynamic elements really intrigues me as it relates to the type of performances hosted at Sphere. The references you mentioned, The Phillips and Ryman, are both music or audio-focused. But when you started concepting this project, how much were you trying to anticipate what types of events might be hosted at Sphere in the future – I don’t know, sporting events or whatever? I guess how much did you build dynamism into the design to account for other programming Sphere could eventually showcase with or without knowing what it might be?
KS: That's a good question. I mean no matter what, the experience is big right? It's going to be a powerful one. I was there July 4th when we turned it on with maybe only 50 people who knew that was happening. And it's such a switch because for years you're sort of like dealing with this building, this expensive round thing, and then we turned it on and there was just an audible silence. I think it's in the hands of both the artists and the audience to explore and kind of develop with the building, and you’ll learn from that. It’s a mutual relationship and I'm really excited to see where that goes.
Thinking about that tactically, where does collaboration with the artist come into play with design elements? When you’re talking to Darren Aronofsky vs U2, what’s at their disposal?
KS: I mean it's very sophisticated. You start from a design perspective to consider how many layers of light do we want to have in this space? How many layers of colored light do we want to have in a space? And even everything that's been seen so far is not everything that we've built. There are additional layers of light that haven't been used yet.
So Darren's film is 54 minutes and 7 seconds but you’re here in the building for 2 hours and 10 minutes, right. So you're saying okay, the middle part of that 54 minutes is a prescriptive experience in the bowl but the rest is something else. So we looked at what ended up being the first scene in the film and tried to match the color grading for that scene to the atrium. So when you walk into the atrium and you're getting your Sphere burger, you're finding your seat, you're exploring and you're taking your phone out, the color for the atrium is actually matched to the first scene of the film. So you’re in that environment before you even reach your seat.
Round one was I think crazy successful, but it's so new and it requires that audience participation to learn from and grow together. It's just going to get more fun, more rich, more exciting.
On that note, what was surprising to you in terms of the reactions from people who have been to Sphere or from Darren or from U2 after their first performances?
KS: Good question. It's been really inspiring to see so many people have their own unique positive experience, and their ability to tell their story in this space is so consistently positive no matter where they're coming from. I've heard amazing stories of people getting on planes and filming in their whole journey from Latin America to the sphere.
It was definitely surprising when we turned it on and people were stopping in the streets. It was a fun work environment. It was also really stressful because you go to work and you'd leave work and people are sitting having first dates in the parking lot watching the Sphere, and I talked to a lot of Uber drivers when I was living in Las Vegas. People would charge tickets to sit in the parking garage like July 5th.
Yeah, it was pretty wild to read about the Sphere fan club pages that started popping up. It really feels like one of those awe-inspiring experiences that once you have, you feel drawn to share.
KS: Yeah, I feel super fortunate to be part of it. The whole team, everybody who contributed to the project worked really hard and gave a lot to it.
And when it's like what we're talking about – breaking that fourth wall. it's something that needs to be done really carefully and really thoughtfully and really considerately and passionately
It's a delicate thing because the other side of awe is terror right?
On the consumer experience
What 3 words would you use to describe the experience?
Groundbreaking, surreal, futuristic
Extraordinary, adroit, ethereal
Wonder, realized, expansive
What expectations did you have going in and how did reality compare?
It was definitely more of a visual than audio experience compared to expectations for a U2 gig
I was somewhat skeptical that it would feel different than a giant IMAX screen, but the quality of the graphics and the 360 nature really made it feel like it was transporting you to another space and was fully immersive; at times it was like the Turing test where you could hardly tell that you were in a false reality vs. staring at something real
What does Sphere remind you of, if anything?
It’s like the brain explosion of experiencing something for the first time…like when you’re learning how to ride a bike and everything locks into place.
I would describe it as IMAX times 5. It kind of feels like a ride, with the camera always moving at a quick pace.
A "group VR" experience where you are transported to another reality, but doing so along with thousands of others
Walk me through your Sphere journey. When / how did it start and end? Did it feel different than whoever you attended with?
I remember walking over from the Venetian on this elevated walkway. And then you were sort of catapulted into it. I got tickets through a corporate partner, so I went with 3 people I met 30 minutes before the concert. The group I was with was irrelevant. You could go by yourself and have the best night of your life.
I went for the U2 concert so I was mainly expecting a great concert with souped-up visuals. The bar was set pretty high when you walk up to the Sphere and the exterior is all graphics, seeming somewhat otherworldly even in a bizarre flashy place like Vegas. The whole place also felt very high end and clean/modern when you walk to your seats. And one of the coolest things was that before the show they had this very archaic-seeming metal cavern-like imagery frozen on the projections so it almost felt like you were in an old structure from Tatooine. The contrast between the super-modern Sphere and the old, weathered setting that it was transporting you to was very cool.
We saw the Darren Aronofsky film on Friday night. They start you off with an interactive experience in their lobby filled with very futuristic things (robots, holograms) to transport you to another world. But mainly it feels like they’re trying to get you to buy drinks. This interactive experience in the beginning felt a little underwhelming. You basically spend an hour early getting acclimated and the move into the main area. And if you’re claustrophobic or afraid of heights, you could get kind of freaked out. There’s a huge vertical drop. The screen was all black at first, then the show starts at one-fourth of the screen, and then pans to the full screen where you’re physically moving around to see what’s going on.
Talk about your perception of Sphere's connection to time and place. (Do you think another Sphere would succeed anywhere else or is it very…Vegas? Does it feel tied to the present moment or futuristic?)
It felt like a glimpse of the future. I do think the grandeur and spectacle of it was very well aligned with Vegas. But I would also watch a concert in a Sphere in any city if it was an artist I liked. I think it delivered on the hype and felt like the cutting edge of what visual entertainment will be going forward. The collective experience of looking around and seeing others experience the wonder also made it very special (vs. just trying on Apple Vision Pro which would be more of a solitary experience). But I do think the novelty would wear off after a few times so I doubt this is the new base case for what a movie theater or concert will look like
I think you could do it anywhere. The concert experience really hasn’t been disrupted, and this felt like a step forward.
What would it take for Sphere to get you back as a repeat customer?
I would go back for a great concert (i.e., I would fly to Vegas specifically to see the concert there vs. just settle for the "normal" concert experience in my hometown) and if there was a really cool movie they made for it about a topic I like, I would also go back, though wouldn't fly to Vegas just for that. Honestly next time I'm in Vegas I would probably look up what was playing and try to go (though I hate Vegas generally so don't know when that would be)
Well I basically paid $150 per person for a movie. Next time I’d go for the full concert experience and take in the sound system.
I’d see another rock or electronic band. And I never do things twice, but this I would.
*all interviews have been edited for brevity.