THE GEOSPHERE GLOBE - 1990

“The first objective…is to create a precise and powerful instrument for the visual presentation of complex global environmental issues…a massive replica of the planet Earth…It will be the first three-dimensional representation of Earth to use as its surface actual satellite images rather than artists' renderings of land masses and oceans.” [1]

When the GeoSphere Image was completed, its data was transferred onto magnetic tape, loaded into the computer of a digital camera, and photographed directly. The image was enlarged, shaped into 36-equally sized gores, and printed to fit a 6-foot 4-inch diameter sphere, which Van Sant had already produced. The gores were then cut out and pasted onto the sphere, making the first GeoSphere Globe. 

In an interview with Omni magazine’s Steve Nadis, Van Sant explained that he was devising a way to project images onto a spherical screen. When it was finished, machines positioned around the Globe would project animated information onto its surface. Drawn from the Global Visual Library, the GeoSphere Project’s database of Earth information, the displays might include patterns of “deforestation in the Amazon, desertification in northern Africa, or whale migrations in the Pacific.”  

By the end of the year, Van Sant stated, he would make a 21-foot diameter rotating Globe, complete with mountain ranges fashioned “using sculpting tools and hypodermic needles filled with caulk.” He planned to emulate Earth’s atmosphere by encasing the Globe in a layer of clear polycarbonate Lexan and projecting GOES weather satellite information on to it in real-time. Eventually, he hoped to use dynamic gases or liquid crystals under the Lexan to mimic atmospheric changes. “The first reality model of Earth” [3]