MGM China’s new Macau integrated resort, MGM Cotai, will feature a four-story high “digital canvas” that the company says will form the heart of the property when it opens its doors on 29 January 2018.
Known as Spectacle, the unique space will span the length of a football field and is described as “an innovative, multi-dimensional sensory experience.”
The carefully engineered column-free long-span diagrid structure will “seem to be alive,” MGM said, continually evolving and responding to changing conditions such as visitor behaviors, weather, time of day or season.
“Everyone wants to know what is Spectacle,” said CEO and Executive Director of MGM China, Grant Bowie. “It’s a digital canvas, a reflective space. It’s mesmerizing, whimsical and entertaining.
“You really have to see with your own eyes to understand it. MGM Cotai is a property of discovery. We are not only building a luxury integrated resort, but creating an experience that continues to surprise and captivate our guests. With Spectacle, we provide an interactive and ever-changing experience to our guests to create great memories at MGM Cotai.”
Spectacle will comprise the world’s largest area of permanent indoor LED screens showcasing an array of digital art collected from around the globe and featuring a number of world renowned artists including Joel Sartore, Magda Indigo, Garth Williams, Rob Kesseler and Wolfgang Stuppy.
To create the experience, MGM spent months capturing natural wonders of Asia with the latest filming technologies to produce over seven hours of exclusive content under six themes. The footage will be showcased on Spectacle’s 25 LED screens and was co-created with Obscura Digital, a creative studio that combines innovative technology with beautiful artistry to create unparalleled immersive experiences at scale.
Spectacle sets a platform for the artists to reveal the beauty of the world with the content featuring several UNESCO World Heritage Sites of China. According to MGM, the digital art comprises elements of nature, art, music, language, and culture.
Spectacle will also feature the world’s largest indoor art garden. Dubbed Nature’s Art, it will house more than 100,000 plants and over 2,000 plant species including more than 200 different orchid species, many of which are native to Macau and Hong Kong. Several extinct species, dating from the 19th and 20th century, were specially brought back to life using botanical garden seed banks in Hong Kong and Europe.
Spectacle also depicts different forms of Chinese landscape through live plants that are carefully choreographed and interwoven to recreate magnificent sceneries.
Spectacle was created in partnership with some of the industry’s best architectural experts, including Rockwell Group, which created the overall design concept. The LED walls and their contents are a collaboration with digital, visual and audio experts including Obscura Digital, Smart Monkeys Inc, Electrosonic Inc, VER and LAB at Rockwell Group. It is programmed with an incredible collection of 1,000 meters of ultra-high definition LED displays, with more than 700 LED lights, combined with over 130 high-performance speakers in one atrium space.
