Event Horizon
TITLE: Event Horizon
ARTISTs: Ben Bartlett
24 August - 1 SeptemBER 2025Introduction
Event Horizon is a three-story tall, audio-reactive LED kinetic sculpture evoking a sense of cosmic beauty. Five concentric rings chaotically spin like a gyroscope 30 ft in the air, covered by over a mile of LEDs which illuminate the darkness of Black Rock City. Beneath the rings is a partially enclosed space surrounded by shimmering walls of light - a space to reflect, a space to wonder, or a space to dance. The entire sculpture is also audio reactive: when it hears a nearby musical presence like an art car, it converts into a cosmological dance floor that pulses to the beat!
On a philosophical level, Event Horizon is a meditation on the beauty of the Universe and the complexity emerging from the simple rules that govern it. The goal for this piece was to evoke a sense of awe and wonder from this piece similar to what we feel as humans looking up at the night sky: appreciating the colossal scale of the cosmic dance over our heads and puzzling to figure out how it all works. But on a lighter note, the whole sculpture also doubles as a dance floor, so it also evokes a sense of joy: life isn’t only a puzzle to be figured out, it’s also something beautiful to experience during our short time in this Universe.
Photo by Gurps Chawla
Climate Approach to Project
Carbon Emissions from Travel (tCO2e): 0.35 tCO2e
Carbon Emissions from Shipping (tCO2e): 0.71tCO2e
Carbon Emissions from Energy Use (tCO2e): 4.23 tCO2e
Emissions - Other Categories (tCO2e): 12.54 tCO2e
Emissions - Accuracy: Accurate
Emissions Calculation Description & Methodology:
By far the largest source of carbon emissions (constituting the majority of all emissions for this project) was for raw materials - the production of the large amounts of aluminum and steel required to build the structure. The emissions costs for the bill of materials was included in as much detail as possible, including all structural, mechanical, and electrical parts on the sculpture. Freight was calculated based on mileage traveled in a known vehicle type to transport pieces to the workshop and to transport round-trip to Black Rock City from San Francisco. Energy emissions to power the piece were computed from the known amount of diesel burned at the event. Surface travel emissions were computed from estimates of transport schedules to and from the workshop. Food, accommodation, and personal transport to the event were not included in the estimate because these would have been carbon costs with or without this art project.
Photo by Ed Nguyen
Climate Actions Taken:
This project was fully carbon-neutral. Because powering this 17kW sculpture through solar power and batteries was not feasible from an engineering standpoint due to energy density requirements, we instead purchased carbon offsets from Terrapass to cover the full CO2 impact of the project. This includes the estimated carbon emissions from fuel, shipping, and transportation, as well as emissions from refining the raw aluminum and steel used to make the structure. Terrapass was selected for the carbon offsets for its good track record with transparency and because 100% of its projects operate under registries approved by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market.
Drone photo by Keenan Hock
Exhibition credits:
A heartfelt thanks to our amazing team: Ben Bartlett, David McDermott, Justin Greenberg, Casey Larson, Charles Weber, Eugene Nadyrshin, Leah Edwards, Brendan Tobin, Joe Madres, Jake Stumph, Christian Williams, Shae Inglin, Noah Zempsky, Afik Cohen, Grayson Poulos, Maria Paula Menezes, Cecilia Saraiva, Judass Han, Rohan K, James Quinn, Caleb Kierum, Ryan Mentley, Sam Fike, Breland Miley, Cjay Roughgarden
This project was financially supported by the Lotus Art Fund, the Black Rock City Honoraria Grant, and by many donations from friends. We are so grateful for their generous support in making this vision into a reality.