Framerate: Desert Pulse

DATE: October 11, 2025 - May 10, 2026
TIME: 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.
PRICE: Included with Garden admission or membership

In October 2025, Desert Botanical Garden will premiere a monumental new art exhibit that is years in the making. Desert Pulse, a creatively and technically ambitious series of artworks, will take visitors on a journey through a year in the life of the Sonoran Desert, in an immersive experience never done before at the Garden. Utilizing state-of-the art technology and high-resolution, immersive exhibit displays, Desert Pulse reveals the rhythms of nature, desert plants and manmade environments across the Valley that cannot otherwise be experienced by the human eye. The work will be realized as several breathtaking screen installations around the Garden and a large-scale immersive exhibition in the Garden’s new The RAF Exhibit Gallery.

ScanLAB Projects
ScanLAB Projects is a pioneering creative practice. They digitize the world, transforming temporary moments and spaces into compelling experiences, images and film. They design online environments, immersive installations and objects. They use their craft as a way to bear witness to the world, collaborating with musicians, dancers, researchers and scientists on evocative and meaningful stories. ScanLAB’s primary medium is 3D scanning, a form of machine vision that they believe is the future of photography. As the electronic eyes for billions of mobile phones and driverless vehicles, 3D scanners are the cartographers of the future. By critically observing places and events through the eyes of these machines, their work hopes to glance at the future we will all inhabit. ScanLAB’s award-winning work has been featured on the BBC, The Guardian and The New York Times and has been exhibited internationally, including at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The New Museum NYC, South by Southwest and the Venice Biennale.

Sustainability & Impact
Desert Pulse is an artwork underpinned by sustainable values. ScanLAB Projects and the Garden have rigorously considered and documented the impacts of making and exhibiting this work at all stages of its production so far. Together they are committed to upholding these values in the future, and ask any venues, partners and supporters to join in taking these values forward. At times, this means making decisions that cost more but impact less.

Rivian Partnership
The Garden has a meaningful partnership with Rivian Automotive Inc., with the shared use and loan of their electric R1T. This generous partnership is instrumental in supporting Desert Pulse. Rivian’s contribution aligns perfectly with the environmental themes underpinning ScanLAB’s artwork, alongside the Garden’s mission to advance excellence in education, research, exhibition and conservation of desert plants.

Meet the Artists
Matthew Shaw, Director Matt is co-founder of ScanLAB Projects. His background is in architecture, digital fabrication and speculation about digital cities of the future. Over the last 15 years he’s been turning the relentless, machinic eye of the 3D scanner on anything and everything – from giant mirrored sculptures, to Arctic ice floes, to Roman Sewers to graceful dancers. He is fascinated by the creative and critical role of the pointcloud, and is a big believer in experimentation and precision in equal measure.

William Trossell, Director Will is co-founder of ScanLAB Projects. He loves building new and extraordinary ways to expand our understanding of the material world. He graduated from the Bartlett School of Architecture but has been somewhat sidetracked as a creative technologist. With a keen interest in how the digital and its augmentation might impact our cultural heritage, Will has worked closely with museums and World Heritage Sites around the globe.

To view, ScanLAB projects, past work visit: Work | ScanLAB Projects

Interested in partnering with the Garden to bring FRAMERATE: Desert Pulse to the Valley? Check out sponsorship opportunities.