The Stranger Party

Director / Executive Producer / Curator

On November 3rd for NFT NYC week, Bolognino, META and UNREALITY threw The Stranger Party, hosting 40 of the creative luminaries of the metaverse and NFT industry for the first showing of Unreality with a surrealistic meal by multisensory storyteller Emilie Baltz. The dinner was followed by a 400 person “Who’s Who” of the NFT scene. The first invitees to the platform were onboarded, with some of the most visionary minds in the tech and art space. The event was held at the Stranger, the newly opened and already an infamous venue, and was co-hosted by NFT curatorial legend Lady Phe0nix and along with META/Unreality CEO Justin Bolognino, with talent and human curation by Restless Group. 

Since 2009, “JB” and META (formerly The Meta Agency ‘09-’14) has been the champion behind some of the world’s leading digital and immersive artists (long before they were famous) the likes of Beeple, Android Jones, VolvoxLabs, Softlab, SuperUber, and Gabriel Pulecio, while directing and collaborating on experiences with the likes of St. Vincent, Skrillex, Phish, Porter Robinson, Troye Sivan, Tiesto and many more. Bolognino has helped to redefine brand clients like Spotify, Twitter, HP, Samsung, Google, Vimeo, with some of the most forward thinking experience of our time. 

His role as designer and curator of The Lab at Panorama, #FEED SXSW, Brooklyn Bowl and Director of The Antarctic dome show at Coachella, “FLATLAND: A Romance of Many Dimensions”, has played an essential part in the evolution of the festival experience. 

Unreality is currently in private beta, set to launch publicly in early 2022. Unreality will be integrating smart contracts and Web3 blockchain tech into their immersive ecosystem. More details will be revealed as the project progresses towards launch.

THE STRANGER PARTY PARTNERS

LADY Phe0nix // universecontemporary.com

Lady PheOnix is the founder of Universe Contemporary, the premier cryptomedia company elevating culture in the metaverse. She’s a leading voice for contemporary digital art and culture, providing an essential platform for the art and artists of our time. Lady PheOnix is a guest lecturer at Harvard where she teaches the foundations of cryptomedia and author of the forthcoming book, Freedom Dreams in the Open Metaverse.

EMILIE BALTZ // emiliebaltz.com

Emilie Baltz believes in Unicorns. She hunts for what does not (yet) exist and is dedicated to creating new possibilities in the world. Best known for her delightful innovation work in food & technology, Emilie uses food as a medium (and metaphor) for designing multisensory experience. She’s made the world’s first Cotton Candy Theremin, the Lickestra (lickable ice cream orchestra!), and served dinner in a nuclear reactor.  With 20 years of work in design, hospitality, performance, technology and new media, she  embraces both analogue and digital as the future of human experience. 

HARMONY // harmony.one

Harmony is an open and fast blockchain. Our mainnet runs Ethereum applications with 2-second transaction finality and 1000 times lower fees. Harmony is your open platform for assets, collectibles, identity, governance. Our secure bridges offer cross-chain asset transfers with Ethereum, Binance and 3 other chains. 

IPFS & Filecoin // ipfs.io | filecoin.io

Filecoin and IPFS are two separate, complementary protocols for storing and sharing data in the distributed web, both created by Protocol Labs. IPFS is a peer-to-peer network and protocol designed to make the web faster, safer, and more open. IPFS upgrades the web to work peer to peer, addressing data by what it is instead of where it’s located on the network, or who is hosting it.
Filecoin, the world’s largest decentralized network, allows users to store, request, and transfer data via a verifiable marketplace. Filecoin is completely open-source, enabling people from all over the world to participate. Filecoin’s advanced technology provides a robust foundation to store the world’s most valuable data sets. 

( N )ever ( F )orget ( T )his

( Circle ) Studios is a media collective producing ( N )ever ( F )orget ( T )his – a six episode collectable docu-series produced in partnership with Protocol Labs. ( N ) ( F ) ( T )  leverages NFTs to generate participatory media, inviting artists to directly contribute to each episode. This series humanizes and celebrates NFT creative culture highlighting what NFTs are, why they matter, and how they can support the creative liberation of artists everywhere.

SKALE // skale.network

SKALE is a multichain network composed of an unlimited number of secure, decentralized, high-performance Ethereum Blockchains, allowing each Dapp or project to have their own unique SKALE Chain. These SKALE Chains were purpose-built to bring Web3 to billions of consumers around the world. SKALE’s advanced cryptography and pooled security model is fast, secure, and decentralized, allowing developers to deliver amazing user experiences to end users without gas fees or latency. 

CLOUDTREE VENTURES // cloudtree.vc 

CloudTree Ventures focuses  on technologies being driven forward by interactive entertainment. CloudTree believes that the businesses building fundamental infrastructure for interactive metaverse experiences in leading edge gaming, esports, AR/VR, Web 3 and XR technologies are disrupting all legacy sectors. CloudTree empowers the next generation of game changers. 

 ABOUT TIMELESS // timeless.space 

Timeless focus on Web3 developments to enable faster and easier access to the Metaverse. We empower the next million subcultures across every open, decentralized Blockchain with open-source projects such as Timeless Wallet, Here & Now NFTs, and SpeakEasy — starting with Harmony.

 Photos by Bonnie Biess, Getty Images