A groundbreaking artificial intelligence installation has opened at Brazil's Museum of Tomorrow, where visitors embark on an immersive journey to create visions of hopeful future worlds through AI-powered technology. The Lumisphere Experience, created by New York-based design studio Visions2030 in partnership with technical collaborators Minds Over Matter, features three distinctive dome structures positioned in front of the Santiago Calatrava-designed museum in Rio de Janeiro.
The installation draws inspiration from Buckminster Fuller's architectural principles and guides participants through a carefully orchestrated meditative experience. According to the creative team, this audiovisual environment represents a convergence of artificial intelligence technology and culture, designed to "awaken creativity, expand collective awareness, and imagine innovative and hopeful solutions to urgent global challenges." The project specifically aims to counter prevailing negative narratives surrounding climate change by encouraging visitors to "dream big" about potential solutions.
"The point is to dream big and to get people to ask themselves what do you want the future to look like?" explained Visions2030 founder Carey Lovelace in an interview. The three-dome structure creates a progressive journey that begins in the Orientation dome, where visitors receive headphones and gather around a central "digital campfire" - a small hemisphere featuring colorful, shifting visuals projected onto its exterior. During this initial phase, audio narration acknowledges the environmental risks facing Earth due to climate change while proposing human imagination as a powerful tool for addressing these challenges.
The experience continues in the second Immersion dome, which features reclining seating positioned beneath an overhead display of vibrant, dynamic visuals. Here, a second meditative narration guides participants through an expansion of consciousness, preparing them for the creative process that follows. The carefully designed audio elements work in conjunction with the visual displays to create an atmosphere conducive to imaginative thinking and emotional preparation.
The culminating experience takes place in the third Creation dome, where participants remove their headphones and interact directly with tablets and screens displaying various AI-generated world scenarios. Through a series of thoughtfully crafted prompts, visitors construct their ideal "dream world" by answering questions about desired landscapes, atmospheric qualities, and technological solutions. The system asks participants to consider what types of environments they envision, what mood or energy their ideal world should possess, and what specific solutions it should incorporate.
Particularly notable are the sustainability-focused options available to users, including choices between clean nuclear energy, wind power, and solar technology. Once selections are made, the AI system generates a unique landscape image that participants can download for personal use while simultaneously displaying it on public screens throughout the room. This dual approach creates both individual ownership of the creative process and shared community experience.
Lovelace addressed potential concerns about AI technology, characterizing it as a practical tool despite acknowledged drawbacks such as data center land usage and energy consumption. "There's a lot of future shock around AI, there's a lot of fear," she noted. "To me, AI [is like] a hammer - it's a tool. It's something that we can use the way we want to use it." This perspective reflects the installation's broader philosophy of harnessing technology for positive environmental and social outcomes.
The project's impact extends beyond individual visitor experiences through a comprehensive research partnership with The Institute for the Future (IFTF). This collaboration has gathered data from approximately 14,000 participants, providing valuable insights into collective visions of ideal future environments. The research findings reveal that participants consistently envision worlds characterized by positive, sunny, peaceful, and natural atmospheres, with frequently mentioned descriptors including "natural," "harmonious," and "peaceful."
Significantly, the data analysis shows that "futuristic, sci-fi, cyber, or dystopian aesthetics were rarely mentioned," indicating that even when considering technologically advanced futures, participants strongly prefer human-centered and environmentally integrated solutions. According to the research team, this suggests that "the imagined setting is not only beautiful but also emotionally tranquil and healthy," representing a collective desire for balanced technological progress.
The Lumisphere Experience has an international trajectory, having initially appeared as part of several "solarpunk" installations at the California Institute of Art festival. Its placement in Rio de Janeiro was strategically timed to coincide with significant environmental events, including this year's Earthshot Prize awards and the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference, both held in Brazil. This timing underscores the installation's relevance to ongoing global climate discussions and solution-seeking efforts.
The Museum of Tomorrow will host The Lumisphere Experience through December 18, providing visitors with the opportunity to participate in this unique intersection of technology, creativity, and environmental consciousness. The installation represents a innovative approach to public engagement with climate issues, using immersive technology and collaborative creativity to foster optimistic thinking about planetary challenges and potential solutions.
