The Sandbox

LionTree, the merchant bank at the center of the world's largest technology and entertainment transactions, hosts an annual retreat that gathers industry leaders to explore what's next. The 2020 event featured projector-based globes as displays, and LionTree approached us to design content and experiences around that technology. The theme was connectedness, tied to a rainforest conservation initiative LionTree was sponsoring in Guatemala.

We proposed The Sandbox: a multi-sensory, interactive art piece that invited guests to engage, collaborate, and leave their individual mark on the performance. Instead of watching a film about a rainforest, guests would reshape one with their hands.

This was the project that started our relationship with LionTree. I led design and production with my team, covering real-time visuals, physical fabrication, sensors, and sound — all delivered in five weeks.

A large LED screen showed a dynamic, real-time scene of a Mayan ruin set in the sponsored Guatemalan rainforest, while the globe displayed the forest's wildlife. Physical statues embedded with RFID chips triggered scenes when placed near the globe and shifted the weather inside the visuals. The central sandbox combined projection mapping with depth sensors to simulate the rainforest's topography, so combing your hands through the sand changed the terrain, fauna, and weather in real time. A Mayan sundial let guests control the passage of time from day to night, under a soundscape built from real recordings from the region, all housed in a fully fabricated set.

We completed the entire installation in five weeks, which I still count among my team's best sprints. Unveiled shortly before the pandemic began, it turned out to be an unexpectedly timely piece about connection — between people, nature, and shared experience. It also opened a LionTree partnership that has continued for years since.