SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- This summer, descend from a verdant rainforest canopy to the pitch darkness of a bat cave, journey from golden prairie grasses to an invisible underground realm teeming with life, and sink from creaking ice floes to the ocean depths sperm whales call home—all without leaving Golden Gate Park. Vivid: Immerse Your Senses, a new multisensory experience at the California Academy of Sciences, transports visitors to six of Earth's most awe-inspiring ecosystems, awakening the senses and unlocking unexpected perspectives on the natural world.

Vivid is a first-of-its-kind sensory experience at the Academy, rendering six unique ecosystems in larger-than-life detail through ultra high-resolution video projections, ambient soundscapes, and nature-inspired scents. Together, they create a transportive, full-body journey through some of Earth's most mysterious realms.

“Most of us will never have the opportunity to swim alongside sperm whales or see bats using echolocation to navigate caves, but in Vivid, you can,” says Aaron Smith, Senior Director of Experience. “So much is happening around us all the time that we don’t normally see or notice, and Vivid is an invitation to slow down and experience it fully, with your senses. We hope visitors leave feeling more connected to, awed by, and curious about the wondrous diversity of ecosystems, flora, and fauna that make our planet so special.”

Vivid: Immerse Your Senses will be on view through September 6, 2026.

Step inside six of Earth’s most dynamic ecosystems

Vivid immerses visitors in six unique ecosystems: a rainforest layered with life from the canopy down to the forest floor, ink-black caves vibrating with the invisible thrum of echolocation, an underground world thriving beneath the soil, a prairie magnified to reveal the insect life hidden in plain sight, sperm whales diving and interacting in the open ocean, and the ice-bright wilderness of the Arctic.





Explore the fascinating world of animal senses

How does a sloth maneuver through a tangled rainforest canopy? How do whales communicate in the open ocean? How do plants sense and respond to their environment? Vivid also explores the science of animal senses, and invites visitors to hear directly from iconic creatures that call these rarely seen ecosystems home. Three animated animal avatars—a sloth, a honeybee, and a beluga whale—speak directly to visitors about their worlds. Through these encounters, Vivid dives into the beautiful and bizarre science of sensory biology, exploring how different organisms extract and interpret information from their surroundings through senses that may be radically different from our own. Behind each of those senses lies a seemingly miraculous evolutionary adaptation millions of years in the making.

Nestled within the exhibition’s “underground” chamber, an earthworm-shaped bench invites guests into the hidden world beneath their feet through a localized audio experience featuring atmospheric narration layered with ambient sounds. Visitors will learn about the secret lives of soil dwellers, from resilient tardigrades and vast mycelial networks to the microbial communities constantly at work below the surface.