A Conversation With Artistic Entrepreneur Carey Lovelace 

Carey Lovelace is a composer, experimental playwright, and visionary who has used her talents to inspire in others a vision of a world beyond climate change, to transform our thinking from darkness and inevitability to hope and light. 

Originally trained as a composer of avant-garde music, she is the founder of Visions2030, a cross-disciplinary collective platform that harnesses artistic imagination to create new models of society. Bluedot founder and CEO Victoria Riskin spoke to her about Visions2030’s latest installation, Lumisphere Experience, at the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio, Brazil, as well as artists she loves and her vision for the future.

Victoria Riskin: You've been a playwright, a journalist, and a supporter of the arts all your life. 

Carey Lovelace: I’ve lived my life in that artistic space, approaching things both as a creator and as someone who’s watched and worked beside other artists. And surrounded by artists, I started to notice something: They have this remarkable way of solving problems. I’d be with my partner or another artist and we’d hit a snag — maybe something like a giant spiral staircase that’s just waiting for someone to walk into it and hurt themselves.

My instinct was, “Let’s fix it the official way. Let’s put padding or carpet around it.” My partner just took a piece of colorful string and draped it right from the staircase. Instantly, it was no longer a hazard. It hit me how often artists find these little, ingenious solutions that totally change the experience, not just for themselves, but for others too.

And that’s what I love about working with artists. They don’t approach things with a strict sense of “this is the only way.” They ask, “What if?” over and over, and somehow, those questions turn into creative leaps. Sometimes what they come up with isn’t just about solving a problem in the studio. It’s a way of seeing that gets applied to bigger issues. The artists I admire most are making art about the real-world challenges, the big societal stuff, not just the little bumps in their own lives. And I just think, wow, what if that mindset — of imagining, of opening up possibilities — what if more people tried that?

VR: Do you have some examples of artists doing just that, opening up possibilities?

CL: Mary Mattingly — I think what she’s doing is so incredible. She’s all about food deserts in New York and how hard it is for people to actually get fresh food if they live in certain neighborhoods. And you can’t just pick fruit from someone’s tree or forage food, so what did she do? She built a barge, planted an orchard right on it, and brings it around to different places so people can collect food. It’s such a beautiful, imaginative response to a problem that can feel so impossible. She’s making community out of limitation.

VR: I love that. 

CL: Mel Chin, who I think is just so brilliant. Mel did this whole piece about soil remediation. He actually worked with scientists who found this plant that sucks lead and other bad stuff right out of the soil. So Mel created a whole living garden as art, devoted to healing the earth. I mean, just imagine: This isn’t just a metaphor, it’s literally cleaning the ground beneath our feet.

I remember after Trump was elected, there was so much obsessive energy just doom-scrolling, seeing what wild thing would happen next. But I had this epiphany, like: Why not take all that raw energy and use our imagination, use visioning as a tool to actually create what’s next? I see athletes do it. They build mental images before they run their race. Why can’t we do that, too? 

A vision doesn’t just bounce around in your head; it reaches into your unconscious, guiding your choices in ways you might not even realize. Building a vision is powerful.

VR: That is what your Visions2030 is about. How did it begin?

CL: We’d invite artists to think wild, to propose solutions that might even seem unrealistic at first — like Mary Mattingly and her barge garden, or vacuuming toxins out of the sky. Then we’d team these wild dreamers up with practical problem-solvers. The magic happened when those combinations sparked real, doable prototypes. It was amazing to see imagination linked to practicality, and suddenly all these possibilities opened up.

We also did “collective dreaming workshops,” sessions where people collaborated, imagining what society could be. Sometimes we worked with folks who aren’t usually part of those conversations, like the kids at Exalt Youth. They had incredible ideas, and with everyone in the room, they linked their imaginations. Whole new places and possibilities appeared. It was transformational. 

Honestly, the challenge is tending these projects — so many seeds, and they’re all growing! You have to choose where you focus your care. But the heart of Visions2030 is still the same: Move away from reacting out of fear, and toward imagining where you want to go.

VR: Where did the Lumisphere idea begin?

CL: It started when we were setting up a big event about eco-consciousness at CalArts a few years ago. I noticed that whenever talk turned to climate, people would kind of fall apart, get stuck in catastrophizing — polar bears on melting ice, wildfires, all of it. And my feeling is: if your consciousness is soaked in disaster, maybe we end up creating more disaster. 

Why not aim for a vision, a shared goal, a future we want to reach? Humanity’s done amazing things! We’ve landed on other planets, cured diseases — why not use that energy to figure out where we want to go with the climate, instead of just banning plastic straws and feeling overwhelmed?

So we dreamed up an environment where people could imagine their ideal eco-future — a space to exercise that part of ourselves that doesn’t get used enough. People are quick to list what they don’t want, but creating your dream for the future is vulnerable, personal, and so important.

We partnered with Minds Over Matter, geniuses at immersive experience and projection design — they’ve lit up the Vatican and the East River and built the technology behind the Las Vegas Sphere. Together, we’ve created three interlocking Domes, a journey that’s like a Disneyland ride for the imagination. It doesn’t teach; it doesn’t force an outcome — it simply gives people an incredible experience and lets them dream.

I want people to walk away having not only felt awe and connection, but having awakened that inner vision — to imagine a future and see themselves as part of building it.

VR: Is it very big?

CL: Yes — the installation is very big! It’s this immersive environment, and the whole idea is to lead you through a kind of journey — a journey of dreaming and imagination, really.

You enter the first dome, and it’s almost like sitting around a globe-shaped campfire. You’re with others, sharing stories, connecting, and the space helps you orient yourself to the moment — to who we are, the amazing things we’ve done, and the challenges we all face. There’s a subtle but strong sense of connection that starts to build.

Next, you move physically to the second dome, where you lie back in these fabulous lounge chairs. That space is circular, and the whole experience, from the visuals to the sounds, sends you on this sort of “blast-off” feeling, like you’re launching into space. You let go of your everyday self and enter this saturated, prismatic dreamscape that feeds your imagination. It stimulates ideas and possibilities, almost like an imaginative menu, and you begin to daydream in a deeper, expansive way. The images turn into mandala shapes, and there’s this rhythm that’s almost hypnotic, like being on a train or a plane, where thoughts start to rise up from your consciousness.

When you’ve gone through that, you move to the third dome. There, you use a tablet to choose what you saw, what kind of landscape represents your dream future. That personal vision actually gets displayed on a series of giant LED screens alongside others in a gallery so you’re seeing your dream among so many others, and it’s really moving. It’s almost as if the installation is showing you that your inner dream is possible — that what you imagine can become real.

VR: You’ve installed this at the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio.

CL: The Museum of Tomorrow in Rio is this incredible, sprawling plaza. It was designed by Santiago Calatrava, the same architect who did the Oculus at the World Trade Center, and it looks like a bird about to take off, right on the edge of this gorgeous, glimmering blue water. Our domes sit under this amazing, almost otherworldly structure, and it feels as if they were designed together, both philosophically and poetically aligned. The museum invited us to extend our stay for their 10th anniversary, so we’ll be there until Dec. 19, 2025. It’s just been wonderful. 

What’s most powerful for me is how universal the impact has been. Almost everyone who goes through describes a sense of feeling deeply moved and empowered, as if their imagination and heart have been awakened. I see people coming out of the second dome just glowing. And then, when they use AI to create their own vision, it’s like they’ve formed a true masterpiece. It’s an example of how AI and technology can be deeply empowering, building rather than breaking, inspiring rather than overwhelming.

VR: What lies ahead?

CL: We’re exploring a lot of new venues, both in Brazil and internationally. There’s interest in New York, the UK, Berlin. My dream is to see multiple versions of this out in the world, not just one installation we pick up and move. It could become a platform to help people everywhere connect, dream, and imagine new futures together, expanding even beyond the climate theme, because truly, the environment is us, too. Part of healing the earth is healing our sense of connection, joy, and possibility.

There’s so much simple joy and meaning in sharing stories and dreams with each other and feeling like your imagination can quite literally change the world.