john gerrard: SPIRITS

SPIRITS is a year-long artwork designed to be experienced on your mobile browser. Irish artist john gerrard collected 96 plastic sandals and shoes from beaches across the world, each one carrying unknown stories of the people who wore them. By photoscanning the discarded objects into high-resolution “gaussian splats,” gerrard transforms them into sculptural forms, inviting the viewer to overlay them with oil slicks or ocean currents. The work unfolds across four 24-hour events tied to the solstices and equinoxes, when the spirits gradually appear on LACMA's homepage—one rising with each passing hour, creating a constellation of found objects and oceanic memory.

Unlike video or conventional 3D scans, SPIRITS is a world rendered "live." Utilizing gaussian-splats, which load and shift in real time, these virtual sculptures exist only as they stream into the device, making the user’s finger a central cultural actor. 

How to engage with SPIRITS:
Move - Press and drag
Transform - Press upon the object
Sound off/on - Speaker icon to bottom left
Rotate - Circle icon to bottom center
Clear transformation - Sun icon to bottom right

Winter Solstice (Pacific Ocean): December 21, 2025 | 12 am–11:59 pm PT

Spring Equinox (Indian Ocean): March 20, 2026 | 12 am–11:59 pm PT

Summer Solstice (Mediterranean Sea): June 21, 2026 | 12 am–11:59 pm PT

Autumn Equinox (Atlantic Ocean): September 22, 2026 | 12 am–11:59 pm PT