A&E

A (sort of) tranquil transmission is coming from Area15

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THE VOX AGENCY

You can be forgiven if it's slipped your mind, but Area15—the giant, Palace Station-adjacent charcoal-colored mystery box that will host the Santa Fe, New Mexico-based interactive art collective Meow Wolf, among other one-of-a-kind entertainment and retail destinations—is still out there, and, as far as I know, still scheduled to open this year. (Let us hope.) But the Area15 crew isn't waiting until opening day to win over our hearts and minds. Today, they've posted the first in what they say will be an entire series of "guided meditation videos to encourage relaxation and amusement during quarantine."

They're, um, not quite what you expect. Before you get your chakras all in a bunch, know that these are actually some sublimely goofball meditations, narrated by velvety-voiced Atlas Haverford (actually Area15 chief creative officer Michael Beneville) and visualized by UNLV's Marlon Bulaong, winner of Area15's digital content creation contest. The first episode of Sleep15, posted to Facebook, is less a meditation than a humorous exercise in existential terror (let's just say the cosmos is a big place, with poor transit options and limited mobile service), while the Instagram-hosted second episode features Elvis singing a social distancing-informed version of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"

Will Sleep15 help you to transcend this plane of existence? Well, maybe kinda. Will it give you a well-deserved laugh? Very likely. And at the least, it'll renew your anticipation of Area15—opening, like everything else, once we're given the high sign to emerge from the caves.

For more, visit Area15.com.

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