Nøtel
2016-ongoing. Multimedia installation, VR experience, open-world game, variable duration
“Nøtel Corporation is proud to present our new marketing suite for the Nøtel, our flagship range of zerø-star™ hotels that embody the concept of fully-automated luxury. Designed by world-leading architects to accommodate today’s global nomads, you can rest assured that your anonymity and security is of the utmost importance. Why not indulge in the personalized, intelligent sound system at the piano bar, bathe in the glow of our eco-friendly, thermo-nuclear spa, or browse our carefully curated media art collection in the lobby?” - Nøtel CEO Statement
About
Nøtel explores the dark humour of automated hospitality and corporate aesthetics. Originally started as a series of audio-visual performances with electronic musician Kode9, the project has developed into physical manifestations. These contain a video-game realm—accessed through VR headsets, monitors, and game controllers—which revolves around the fictional Nøtel Corporation. This conglomerate embodies the concept of fully-automated hotels, with AI technology catering for every whim. Accompanied by the CEO’s voiceover, players explore the spaces of the Nøtel, encountering sprawling chambers, robotic servants, and ghostly
holograms.
Each version of the Nøtel installation adapts to the locations where it is presented. At arebyte Gallery, London, it references the large-scale urban regeneration projects around the site; at Stroom den Haag, the game features advertisements of the security industries that congregate around the Hague; and at the installation within a hotel in Essen, the Nøtel incorporates a virtual gallery for the hotel’s collection of new media art.
Each version of the Nøtel installation adapts to the locations where it is presented. At arebyte Gallery, London, it references the large-scale urban regeneration projects around the site; at Stroom den Haag, the game features advertisements of the security industries that congregate around the Hague; and at the installation within a hotel in Essen, the Nøtel incorporates a virtual gallery for the hotel’s collection of new media art.
Trailer
Press
‘Dystopia lands in London’s Docklands’, Gabrielle Schwarz, Apollo Magazine, 26 July 2018
‘ScareBnb: Step into Kode9 and Lawrence Lek’s eerie post-human hotel’, George Kafka, FACT, 6 June 2016
‘ScareBnb: Step into Kode9 and Lawrence Lek’s eerie post-human hotel’, George Kafka, FACT, 6 June 2016
Credits
Architecture, Graphics, and Video
by Lawrence Lek
Sound Design and Music
by Kode 9
by Lawrence Lek
Sound Design and Music
by Kode 9