2024 has been a year of changes for the House of Zolo. We’ve been lucky to work with a range of partners and collaborators to share our work on a variety of platforms, especially in online communities and virtual reality spaces. These new perspectives have helped us reimagine works of literature as online or immersive experiences, and given us the opportunity to explore different disciplines. By trying out new platforms and teaming up on collaborative projects, we’ve expanded the scope of what we do to reflect an interdisciplinary approach. From our VR Forward gallery in Second Life:
Thanks to this new perspective, work by many House of Zolo artists and their collaborators can be experienced across multiple platforms as online installations, virtual worlds, or VR experiences. We currently have poetry-based installations happening in VRChat, Second Life, Resonite, and other VR spaces. These new artworks have been created through collaboration with individual writers, visual artists, performers, and digital creators.
You can see documentation and online installations of some of that work in the VR Forward project in our gallery in Second Life, and via The Space Is Volatile, featured in the most recent Wrong Biennale.
We remain dedicated to promoting bold, forward-thinking ideas that explore possibilities of the future, and that push the boundaries of conventional artistic expression. During 2024, we gained recognition for transforming stories and poetry into immersive VR spaces, and for creating unique experiences that allow audiences to engage with original narratives in new and interactive ways.
We’ll always be publishers of the best in speculative literature, so stay tuned for new calls coming in 2025. We’ll also be working across other disciplines, most especially media arts, virtual reality experiences, live performances, and live events. We’ve learned that working within virtual environments offers many opportunities to artists for reaching wider audiences, for participating in a global community, and for expanding the creative horizons of our Collective.
From the VR Forward installation in Second Life
LITTLE HISTORIES
In our new capacity as a multidisciplinary artist collective, we’ve been dreaming up innovative and exciting ways of engaging with communities. As we shift into producing a more diverse range of creative projects, we’re excited to invite you to experience our latest presentation, “Little Histories,” an art show featuring a collection of blackout poems and collages by none other than our lead editor, Erika!
With the help of JE, in collaboration with BBMC, the collection of new images debuted in the Odyssey Simulator gallery on Saturday, November 30 at 4 pm EST. View the exhibition in Second Life:
Erika’s approach to art-making highlights how art serves as an alchemical process, allowing selves to communicate across time. The Artist is interested in how meaning emerges later and over time. This connection across time is nurtured through a willingness to explore and play. Each of these ‘little histories’ asks the viewer to engage in their own meaning-making. What started out as life caught in amber for the artist is freed to become something new and ever-changing.
NEW CREATIVE TEAM
HOZ has officially welcomed JE Solo to the team as creative lead. JE joins editor in chief and creative lead, Erika Steeves, to bring House of Zolo into 2025 and beyond. JE has collaborated with HOZ on literary and VR projects, and brings years of experience as a writer, performer, and digital creator.
NEW CALLS
We’re also working on themes for our new calls and projects. Stay tuned for announcements on upcoming plans, calls for submissions, and fresh ideas—coming in 2025. We’re excited about what the future holds.