About Hotel Blue

Hotel Blue was a groundbreaking multi-screen installation presented at Vellum LA on Melrose in Hollywood, featuring multiple large-scale LED screens and dozens of smaller displays showcasing digital artwork from eight different artists. Each piece included an NFT component, with proceeds donated to Ukrainian aid funds during a critical time of international crisis.

My multimedia contribution to the exhibition encompassed several interconnected works that explored themes of peace, transformation, and digital resistance. The centerpiece was an interactive filter entitled "Prayer"—a technological wish for peace that visitors could experience firsthand. For the massive LED screens, I created a large 8K video featuring three avatars and a spaceship navigating through a blue and yellow church, colors symbolic of the Ukrainian flag and the hope for sanctuary.

Another key piece was a 3D animated clip of myself performing an act of digital alchemy—turning a golden tank into poetry made of light while wearing the same filter crown-mask-headdress. This transformation sequence served as a metaphor for converting instruments of war into expressions of beauty and hope.

The exhibition expanded beyond its initial presentation to include multiple iterations and events. At Vellum LA, a panel discussion on "Posthuman Bodies in Web 3" brought together artists and theorists Jesse Damiani, Alice Scope, Qianqian (Q) Ye, and Floontz to explore the intersection of digital embodiment and virtual identity. Additionally, Hotel Blue was featured at SXSW, bringing the immersive experience to an even broader audience.

The most ambitious component was an interactive 3D video game installed at the opening, which took place off-site at SV Studios. The game was suspended over the gallery on a massive 20x30 foot LED screen throughout the entire opening night, playable live via wireless connection from anywhere in the space.

In this immersive game environment, players took control of a naval ship transformed with vast butterfly wings—a magical, shining weapon soaring through galaxies and nebulae, all somehow nestled within the architecture of a gothic church. Allied butterflies joined players in aerial combat against flying golden tanks that fired red lasers, creating an endless choreography of barrel rolls and loop-de-loops across a colorful, graphics-rich battlefield that merged the sacred with the fantastical.

Throughout the exhibition space below, my other animations looped continuously on dozens of additional screens, creating an immersive environment where visitors could discover new visual narratives at every turn. The installation was featured in Artillery Magazine as "a home for the virtual beings of tomorrow" and was highlighted in LA Weekly's arts calendar, cementing its place as a significant moment in Los Angeles' digital art landscape.

Each of the three avatars has a corresponding filter that they wear which was created with anti-war sentiment.