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Officially opening March 2009, a unique luxury electronic art hotel attached to a socially-inclusive arts venue is to open in the city of Poznan, Poland, a stone’s throw from Berlin. Built around an interactive art project created by internationally-acclaimed, Mexican-Canadian electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Blow Up Hall 50 50 offers a unique combination of: luxurious comfort, super high tech facilities and personal artistic experimentation.
The hotel is conceived as an art space, with visual, video and musical installations from famous international names throughout its communal spaces and 22 bedrooms.
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer – whose work is on display at both the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Tate in the UK – designed a one-off video installation that is the focal point of the foyer and the starting point for the hotel’s overall design. Called Blow-up, it is a high resolution, interactive display that acts as a simulated eye. It fragments a surveillance camera view into 2,400 virtual cameras – so guests can see lots of tiny, visually-distorted versions of themselves on mini digital screens.
Indeed, the hotel takes its name from the seminal piece of art, which itself was named after the cult 1966 British-Italian art film, Blowup, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni.
Uniquely, instead of a key, each guest is given an iPhone that opens their bedroom door through IT recognition technology. There are no door numbers, so to locate their room guests point their iPhone down the hallways. The iPhone lights up and beams light towards a small screen outside the correct bedroom door.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
