Loutra: Virtual Artist Residency

Introduction

Loutra is a geothermal bathhouse and its surrounding outbuildings, inspired by the municipal baths of Mandraki in Nisyros, Greece.

It is a virtual art space for you to reside in - a small, contemplative world to return to from time to time.

Loutra receives regular updates that manipulate and subvert its environment, introducing new experiments, artworks, and ideas.

Come back whenever you like.

Features

• A unique digital atmosphere with a nostalgic, decayed aesthetic

• In-game tools that alter your perception of space and content

• A hand-crafted world filled with quiet details and subtle quirks

• A persistent environment with a fragmented history that changes over time, hosting new exhibitions and experiences

• A nonlinear, hybrid walking simulator / immersive sim - a "loitering simulator"

• Over 20 artworks spanning sculpture, painting, audio, film, installation, and interactive digital media

• An exhibition guide listing all contributing artists and their works

• Online chatroom

• Make a coffee, take a bath, sit by the water

Statement

"...But it will be wonderfully pleasant to be able to transform at will an empty hour, an interminable evening, an endless Sunday, into an enchantment, an expression of tenderness, a flight of the spirit."

• The Conquest of Ubiquity, Paul Valéry (1928)

Loutra situates itself in the unstable terrain between memory and simulation - a nostalgic yet bit-rotten cyberspace that resists the smooth veneer of corporate virtuality. In its inaugural group show, Loutra accommodates the voices of thirteen artists within a world of crude, deteriorating pixels. What emerges is a slow unfolding of atmospheres.

Born from an artist residency in 2019, Loutra began as both an act of preservation and a response to the rise of digital-curatorial experimentation. Initially a virtual artist residency in the form of a videogame, it evolved through a series of beta exhibitions and exercises in subtractive design, becoming a continuous, dreamlike digital space.

Loutra is a living work. Though complete in form, it continues to change through periodic updates, new exhibitions, and online events.

Loutra is self-funded and free-to-play. External links are provided where you can support its continued development; any donations are deeply appreciated.

Artists

jasper howard @jasperhoward · jacob potterfield @jpotterfield.bsky · joey schutz @joeyschutz.bsky · gurnburial @gurnburial · titolovesyou @titolovesyou · szyst @szyst · bugbuspiano @carriswheel · francesca @_sadhouseplant · charlotte castaing @charlottecstng · natch @natchsoft · alfie sellers @alfiesellers · stanley welch @stanley.welch · wayne @kernelfusion · shanahan sweet @shanahan_sweet

Controls List

WASD - Movement

Mouse - Look

Escape to show menu

E or Click to Press (Interact)

Z to sit down / stand up

T to open online chatroom