THE EARTH SITUATION ROOMS - 1989
“The Geosphere will be a sophisticated "set" or stage for the animated depiction of global events...As seen by the viewer, the globe comes alive with animated visualizations of selected complex global systems and resource databases.”
The Earth Situation Room Network was the primary point of public interaction with the GeoSphere Project. Each Room contained a Geosphere Globe and the regularly updated Global Visual Library.
The first Earth Situation Room was installed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (“Earth Summit”), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 1992. At seven feet in diameter, the Rio Globewas smaller than Van Sant had envisioned in 1990, but it nonetheless had lasting impact on environmental policy and the technology landscape.
The only artwork at the Summit, the ESR was in an area that delegates from 172 governments had to walk through everyday. Van Sant and his team demonstrated the ESR to most of them, including the US Delegation led by Al Gore.
The United Nations purchased the first Earth Situation Room as a gift to the people of Brazil for hosting the Earth Summit and, in 1993, it was permanently installed at the Brazilian National Center for Space Research, Sao Paulo. Earth Situation Rooms were subsequently installed in scientific and educational institutions in Hemeji and Nagoyo, Japan; Washington, DC and Long Beach, USA; Gothenburg, Sweden; and Cape Town, South Africa.
TOM VAN SANT, EARTH SITUATION ROOM TYPICAL DESIGN, CAD DRAWING, C. 1989
EARTH SITUATION ROOM, HYOGO, JAPAN
EARTH SITUATION ROOM, LISEBERG THEME PARK, GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN
EARTH SITUATION ROOM, SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK, WASHINGTON, DC, USA
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Various locations in Japan, USA, Africa, and Sweden
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C. 2000
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N/A
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Various actual and virtual components comprise an Earth Situation Room, including the GeoSphere Globe and the Global Visual Library.
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Various.
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Purchase cost for museum or science center "$550,000" [1]
[1] Tom Van Sant, Spaceport America Proposal, TVS digital record, c. 2012
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Los Angeles County
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The GeoSphere Project’s permanent ESRs have all now been replaced with contemporary display systems.
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TVS digital records
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In the past fifteen years, the GeoSphere Project’s permanent ESRs have been replaced with contemporary display systems. Which rather begs the question, as digital technology became more sophisticated, why did Van Sant not heed the advice of many colleagues and switch to making a purely digital, and thus upgradable, work?
After all, despite his continuing efforts, the artist was unable to resolve the challenges of data display on a spherical screen, while the GeoSphere Image data had been mapped onto a rotating digital sphere since Earth Day, 1990. In addition, German collective ART+COM would soon show the viability of a networked virtual Earth with Terravision (1992).
For Van Sant however, the physical GeoSphere Globe was nonnegotiable. “Art is whatever needs to be done and not just things you like to do,” he said. “Software can’t approach the emotional impact of a pulsing 3-d image. If you don’t have art, you don’t have emotion, just information.”
More than a sculptor’s allegiance to the object then, Van Sant’s commitment to the tangible Globe speaks of his intention to make not only an educational platform, but also a phenomenal experience.
