Us + U2 was a proposed project about the evolution of consciousness on Earth, designed to accompany the 2015 world tour of the popular Irish band, U2.

The project would unfold through a classic twelve-part “Hero’s Journey” — in which consciousness ultimately discovers itself. Each of the journey’s twelve stages would have its own interactive artwork, integrating crowdsourced and collected data from the Internet — and then orchestrated through bespoke audiovisual interfaces designed to be playful, engaging, and beautiful.

The proposal was made in response to an invitation from U2’s longtime show designer, Willie Williams, and was initially approved by the band to accompany their tour. But then two unforseen events occurred in rapid succession: Apple’s inclusion of U2’s new album on everyone’s iPhones was met with terrible press; and Bono was soon thereafter injured while bicycling in New York City’s Central Park, causing the band to postpone their world tour. When they regrouped the following year, they decided to work with set designer Es Devlin instead.

More information about the project is available below.