In Digital Elysium: Architectures of a New Reality

Nov 10 - Jan 10, 2025 

Opening Reception: Wednesday, November 12th 

Artist talk from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Reception from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm

In Digital Elysium: Architectures of a New Reality invites you to read the seams between the tangible and the virtual, where algorithmic design shapes what you perceive and how you act. 

Gallery hours:

Monday - Thursday: 8:00 am - 7:45 pm 

Friday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

College of Architecture | College of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts | Texas A&M University - 798 Ross St, College Station, TX 77843

Images courtesy of Wright Gallery

Closed on weekends and university holidays: Nov 26–28, 2025, and Dec 23, 2025 - Jan 2, 2026

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Architecture of Digital Existences at the French Alliance

Architecture of Digital Existences invites you to enter a serene scene, then notice how it changes under your gaze. You step into a sunlit house with palms and a pool. Clean lines and soft color offer clarity. Look more closely, and you will see seams, overlays, and subtle imperfections that subtly shift. The image begins to ask what you trust and why.

The work presents a dialogue between mid-century optimism and digital fragmentation. Mid-century designs promise openness, order, and a good life. Digital textures break that promise, repeating edges, bending reflections, and revealing hidden systems. You experience attraction and unease simultaneously. This tension reflects how our perception is reshaped.

Palm trees, pools, and facades sit at the center of this language for a reason. They are icons of comfort and control. Palms measure space and light. Pools mirror the sky and produce a second, unstable image. Facades perform a public self. When these forms fracture, ideals begin to wobble.

The process moves from painting to animation to study time and perception. A painting fixes a moment. An animation opens that moment, so slight shifts become visible. You become aware of how your eyes edit reality as you look.

Architecture functions here like psychology. Floor plans script habits. Thresholds define who enters and who waits. Proportions set a tone that your body reads before your mind does. The work asks who designs your desires and where control quietly sits.

How to look

1. Let the geometry and light settle first.

2. Trace a single edge until it repeats or slips.

3. Find one overlay or glitch and follow it across the surface.

4. Step back and notice how the feeling of the scene has changed.

5. Ask what feels handmade and what feels machine-made, and why that split matters to you today.

Presenting this exhibition at the Alliance Française invites both Houston and Francophone communities to slow down together, to look closely, and to leave with sharper questions about images, memory, and the digital systems that frame everyday life.

Emilie Duval Studio