FRAMERATE: Desert Pulse – A Technological Interrogation of the Sonoran Desert

The Desert Botanical Garden in Arizona is set to unveil a major site-specific exhibition by the UK-based artist-led studio ScanLAB Projects. The exhibition, titled FRAMERATE: Desert Pulse, represents the studio’s most ambitious work to date and is the latest installment in the Garden’s prestigious bi-annual art exhibition series. This project synthesizes art, technology, and environmental science to bear witness to the desert ecosystem, seeking to illuminate the profound beauty and fragility of this unique landscape.

A Convergence of Technology and Nature

As part of the studio’s ongoing and acclaimed FRAMERATE series, this new body of work utilizes a proprietary technique involving time-lapse 3D scanning with advanced LiDAR technology. This process was deployed to record subtle, often imperceptible, daily changes within desert landscapes over a full twelve-month period. The project is the culmination of a three-year collaboration between ScanLAB Projects and a team of Phoenix-based photographers, Garden scientists, researchers, curators, and journalists. Local photographers were trained in 3D scanning to document the desert daily for a year, while in London, the artists engineered robotic camera rigs within climate-controlled chambers to precisely capture delicate botanical events, such as the unfurling of cactus petals and spines.

The Exhibition Experience

The resulting installation is a multi-sensory immersion into the energy of the Sonoran Desert. The exhibition is composed of four large-scale spatialized screen installations situated throughout the Garden’s cactus-filled landscape. This is complemented by an indoor, multi-screen exhibition designed to launch the Garden’s new The RAF Exhibit gallery spaces. Within the gallery, custom-designed, high-fidelity OLED screen sculptures function as portals into these dynamically changing environments. The experience is further amplified by integrated sonic landscapes, developed by sound designer and composer Pascal Wyse, which reflect and magnify the impact of the visuals.

Revealing an Unseen World

The immense volume of collected data reveals environmental transformations that are invisible to the naked eye. The artwork visualizes a range of phenomena, including landscapes in flux along the Salt River, the heliotropic movements of desert plants, ecological regrowth following a fire, agricultural irrigation and harvest cycles, and the ultimate by-products of human life, such as landfills. By blending photography, motion, and sound, the work endeavors to awaken a deeper appreciation of the Sonoran Desert.

About the Artists

ScanLAB Projects, founded in 2010 by Matt Shaw and William Trossell, is an artist-led studio that explores the world through machine vision technologies. The studio has pioneered the artistry of 3D scanning, creating fact-based datasets that have been utilized for scientific papers, climate activism, and journalism. In an era of generative AI and synthetic realities, the studio maintains a pronounced commitment to investigation, precision, and truth. While the FRAMERATE series has been shown internationally, Desert Pulse marks its largest and most ambitious iteration to date.

Project Sustainability

FRAMERATE: Desert Pulse is an artwork explicitly underpinned by sustainable values. Both ScanLAB Projects and the Desert Botanical Garden have rigorously considered and documented the environmental impacts across all stages of production and exhibition. Through comprehensive efforts to reduce and mitigate emissions, the exhibition will be certified Carbon Neutral.

Exhibition Information

The exhibition, FRAMERATE: Desert Pulse, will be on view from October 11, 2025, to May 10, 2026. It will be held at the Desert Botanical Garden, located at 1201 N Galvin Pkwy, Phoenix, AZ 85008. Tickets are scheduled for release on September 3, and can be acquired via dbg.org.