Ex-Nihilo ii at LACDA

In November 2025, Apocateca presented Apocateca.002, the second major installment in the collective’s exhibition series. Hosted at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art (LACDA), this show marked a technical expansion of the collective's research into immersive narratives and experimental digital media.

The exhibition featured the debut of Ex Nihilo II, an interactive world-building project that serves as a digital "playroom" and spatial documentary. The game invites users to navigate a deconstructed version of Los Angeles, abstractly reconstructed using high-fidelity real-world scans. These familiar structures are woven into surreal, imaginary environments, pushing the boundaries of visual architecture and interactive mechanics.

The Project: Ex Nihilo II

Building upon the foundations of the first Ex-Nihilo series, this phase focused on the friction between tangible cityscapes and generative digital abstraction. Through the use of advanced 3D scanning and custom game mechanics, the project explored spatial memory and the evolution of the virtual landscape as a site for storytelling. This version features collaborations in 3d mdoels by Paul Plastic, Sleepybbybutt, Jocelyn Valencia, Ian Glauco, and MDAP as well as music and sfx by Nathaniel Eras

Featured Artists & Collaborators

The exhibition was a collaborative effort, bringing together a multidisciplinary group of artists to contribute to the visual and auditory landscape of the show:

Derek Holguin: Creative Direction & Visual Architecture

Paul Plastic: Multi-media collaboration

Nathaniel Eras: Interactive Sound Design & Audio-visual composition

Sleepybbybutt: Visual assets & Digital design

Noelle Gonzalez: Cross-media collaboration

Jocelyn Valencia: Visual and conceptual design

Ian Glauco: Technical collaboration

MDAP: Creative concept and media support