At the Knight Conference Center in the Newseum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art director Michael Govan (far left) moderated the "Hard Things Are Hard" breakfast panel that featured architect David Adjaye and artist James Turrell.Â
For the art installation "Park People," human-shaped Lego sculptures from artist Nathan Sawaya were posed on benches of the South Lawn and served as photo opportunities for guests.
Black Girls Code teamed up with Sphero technology for the "Round Robots" interactive booth, an installation where attendees could make art onsite using round robots.
"Fixing Real Problems," one of the event's six panels, discussed how technology can be used to solve our current problems. Moderated by New York Times staff writer Jenna Wortham (center), the panel had participation from (left to right) Transmedia managing partner Chris Redlitz, EpiBone cofounder/C.E.O. Nina Tandon, Slack founder/C.E.O. Stewart Butterfield, and Coalition for Queens founder Jukay Hsu.
Attendees gathered see "Chuck Close: Large Format Polaroid Portraits," an exhibit by artist Chuck Close. Smaller versions of his art hung outside the main space, where Close created life-size portraits with a 20- by 24-inch Polaroid camera.
Virtual reality headsets allowed wearers to watch artists create immersive visualizations about topical issues, such as gun violence, climate change, and immigration. The artists used Google’s Tilt Brush painting application, which is specifically for 3-D art.
As part of its centennial celebration, the National Park Foundation created the Find Your Park Machine, which offered a 60-second tour of the country’s parks through audio, visual, and geo-location elements. An oversized sign of the activation’s hashtag encouraged guests to share and tag their photos on social media.
Design studio the Mill created the virtual-reality exhibit "6'x9'" in partnership with The Guardian newspaper to provide the experience of what life is like in solitary confinement of a prison.
In the evening, the official SXSL sign became illuminated in different colors based on social media conversations with the event hashtag.
President Barack Obama, climate-change scientist Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, and Leonardo DiCaprio headlined the day's panel discussions by talking about climate conservation and its present and future impact on society.
After the final panel of the day, the SXSL Film Screen area showed the United States premiere of the Before the Flood, a documentary about climate change. DiCpario is one of the movie's stars and producers.
DJ Kiran Ghandi performed from the terrace of the POV lounge at the W Washington D.C. Hotel, overlooking the White House.  Â
Grammy-nominated DJ Young Guru also performed during the after-party.
