Entry No. 13 — the Santa Barbara file — filed under: art

The AlloSphere

A three-story sphere of perforated aluminum hangs inside a soundproofed cube wired with 26 projectors and roughly 140 speaker elements; up to 30 people stand together on a suspended metal bridge at its center and get physically wrapped in data — during 2024's 'Sketches of Sensorium,' that meant ship-engine noise, dying-reef audio, and ocean-current maps projected floor to ceiling around your body.

The move: Reserve a spot for one of the periodic public evenings (past ones ran every second Thursday and fourth Saturday for a ticketed installation), stand on the bridge shoulder to shoulder, and let a working physics/engineering research instrument double as one of the most disorienting shared sensory experiences in the county.

📍 UCSB campus, Goleta
💸 $$
⚡ Up for anything
🌗 Indoors

Where: Elings Hall, Room 2621, California NanoSystems Institute, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106

Hours: Added 2026-07-20 — confirm current hours before you go.

⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.

#immersive #sensory #UCSB #sound art #appointment-only #research lab

Plan a visit & invite your people →

Further reading: allosphere.ucsb.edu · Wikipedia · independent.com

last checked: 2026-07-20