Excerpts from Video Transcript
“This is the Las Vegas Sphere, a massive 366-foot tall, 516-foot wide building, wrapped almost entirely in LED screens. After years of construction and a budget of over $2 billion, the Sphere finally opened its doors on September 29th, 2023. And ever since then, I’ve been plagued with one question: Why? So come with me on this journey to the center of the Sphere as I try to find out.”
“Like many others, I was not aware that the Sphere was being made. So one day the internet was just flooded with this massive glowing orb in the Vegas skyline. …And the reception seemed to be mixed, because on one hand the Sphere is just undeniably a crazy concept and execution of an idea. But on the other hand, getting to take up a skyline of a city with whatever a company wants to put on screen feels pretty dystopian. If you don’t wanna look at what they have to show you, it is forced within your view of the horizon. It’s an eyesore, and it became a lot more of an eyesore when all we were seeing were the advertisements put on the Sphere, like Clash of Clans with Samsung or Google, Meta, Xbox, Stranger Things, Fortnite, PlayStation, and many more.”
“The plan is to go to Vegas for two nights. On the first night, I will go to the Postcard from Earth Short Film made by Darren Aronofsky. It is the only movie they currently show at the Sphere, and the only programming they have other than the next night, the U2 show. U2 is doing a residency at the Sphere. The Sphere is also at the Venetian Resort and Casino in Vegas, which means I need to stay there and get a Sphere view room. This way we can calculate the total cost of what it’s like to have a Sphere-centered vacation. So first postcard from Earth. I went to the Sphere’s website, I went through to the date we needed, and when I was on the ticket selection, I noticed that the cheapest tickets were $99. The most expensive tickets were 249 for a ticket. This is not a full blown movie in this Sphere. This is a short film. Now Chrissy will be joining me at the Sphere, so I have to get two tickets, and they come out to a cool $213 to watch a short film in a ball.
Next on the list were tickets for the U2 show, but unfortunately for me, the show was sold out, which means I had to buy my tickets secondhand. …Some of the cheapest tickets that I could find were $553 a ticket. And you times that by two. And just with a little bit of processing fees, it comes out to $1,491 for U2? I don’t even like U2. The next day we hit the road headed for Las Vegas, Nevada, and I didn’t feel great because the combined cost of everything was $216 for Postcard from Earth, 1491 for U2, and $1,050 for my Sphere view room at the Venetian. And I just want to take a moment and stress here that this is a complete waste of money.”
-Burback, E. (2023, December 20). Is the Las Vegas Sphere Worth It?. YouTube. https://youtu.be/KN63DDD9Y04?si=DTfjypyu0h_Te_ix
Eddy is one of my favorite YouTube creators right now. He has an incredible knack for storytelling and every one of his videos, no matter the topic, is absolutely bursting with effort and thoughtfulness. Every time he tackles a new topic, he examines it in a funny but analytical way, and attempts to add a deeper reflection to his comedic videos. This video was no exception. The ending of the video, although humorous, perfectly encapsulates the feeling of living in a time where technology is evolving at an exponential rate and the present and future seem to be one. He identifies the dystopian parallels that new projects like the Las Vegas Sphere conjure up and eloquently explains why the everyman feels this way by analyzing his experience at the Sphere through the lens of class disparity and capitalism. I encourage anyone to check out his videos. He’ll make you laugh, he’ll make you think, and you’ll come away with a more critical perspective of our world.
It’s crucial that as technological and architectural marvels like the Sphere crop up we keep our humanity and are critical of designs that promise us the future. Does a design really benefit society, or just the wealthy? How can new technologies be harnessed for good? Does technology enhance experience or replace it?
