geoscope 2: worlds is a panoramic multimedia experience exhibited at the venice biennale

geoscope 2 is a split-sphere, multi-media installation by architect jesse reiser and team, that appeared at the biennale architettura 2021 in venice, showcasing over a dozen (and counting) contemporary voices inside and outside architecture. these voices range from pritzker prize winning architect kazuyo sejima to radical ecologist and philosopher timothy morton. the installation is inspired by daniel lópez-pérez’s provocative and luminous book r. buckminster fuller: pattern thinking (lars müller publishers, 2020)

all images courtesy of jesse reiser

architect jesse reiser and the team were challenged with displaying the breadth and quality of the book’s content for an exhibition at princeton university in february 2020. the result was the first iteration of geoscope 2: a pneumatic, spherical multimedia environment and continuation of fuller’s original geoscopes, reimagined through contemporary means. a year later, princeton university is thrilled to see the second iteration on view at the 17th international architecture exhibition.

the first geoscopes, constructed by students of r. buckminster fuller (1895-1983) 60 years ago, were visualized as examples of the world looking at itself, and a means of comprehensively understanding one’s relationship to the world. in response to the biennale’s question ‘how will we live together?’ geoscope 2 breaks the idea of a single world body in favor of ‘many worlds’ — chaos generated by multiple bodies interacting with each other — by literally splitting the sphere in half and opening it up to multiple contributors and perspectives.

‘fuller’s geoscopes, while conceptually ambitious, were technologically limited by their times: literally analog vinyl spheres covered in decals in the shapes of the continents,‘ note lópez pérez and reiser. ‘the way we see it, new technologies and advances in how we view the world have allowed us to simultaneously reimagine and challenge fuller’s original project. we believe that disunity, disjunction, and dissensus — ‘worlds’— are to be celebrated as evidence of true diversity in how we think, act, and interact with one another. this is our critical take on how will we live together: spirited agon as opposed to polite relativism.’

visitors to the installation at the central pavilion in the giardini will find themselves immersed in a panoramic multimedia experience projected over 42 individual faces. comprised of an international cast of contributors, geoscope 2: worlds generates a complex, kaleidoscopic ecosystem, a ‘tableau’ of world-thinking on the edge.

project info:

name: geoscope 2: worlds

principals:jesse reiser + nanako umemoto

design team: julian harake, katherine leung

exhibition curator: daniel lópez-pérez

inflatable design: pablo kobayashi / unidad de protocolos

udp fabrication team: lucía aumann, ernesto falabella, emilio robles, pablo kobayashi

experience design: jan pistor for iart

graphic design: lars müller, esther butterworth / lars müller publishers

exhibition manager: kira mcdonald

soa fabrication lead: grey wartinger

exhibition assistants: andrew cornelis, ryan gagnebin, matthew maldonado, elena m’bouroukounda, jacqueline mix, sonia ralston, felix yiu

videos: onome ekeh

communication: lukas fitze

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.