SEATTLE, WA.- The artist group known as the Moonlight Collective is unveiling their latest immersive art exhibit – the Prairie of Light – leveraging the magic of light and sound to transport you to a metaverse of possibility.

James Gwertzman, Casey Marvin and Paul McDaniel, co-founders of the Moonlight Collective, invite you to explore their upcoming outdoor light exhibit. The piece uses art to explore our relationship to technology, the natural world, and one another through an immersive installation. While the artists and engineers are intentionally vague on details, they promise to transport you to a space and time outside of your reality. The Prairie is a dreamscape where you are free to discover new truths about yourself and the world around you.

“Collaboration is encouraged. The Prairie’s secrets can be learned only by those who work together to discover them”, shares James Gwertzman, Moonlight Collective co-founder and project Visionary.

The little we do know from this secretive team suggests that participants will be attracted by a ring of large glowing door frames set in a circle surrounding a large field of luminous alien-like grass stems. Paths from each doorway lead into the heart of the Prairie. What lies within is anybody’s guess.

“Your engagement with the space around you drives the narrative and gives life to the ethereal lightscape you have become a part of”, adds Casey Marvin, Moonlight Collective co-founder and project Creative Director.

For the exhibit’s debut showing, the Prairie of Light will open its magical, oversized doorways at an undisclosed outdoor location in the Seattle Area for 4 nights in September. A limited number of tickets will be released for online purchase.

For more information and the latest news, follow the Moonlight Collective on Instagram (the.moonlight.collective) or Facebook.

James Gwertzman

James Gwertzman is Chief Visionary for the Moonlight Collective. James has spent most of his professional career working at the intersection of art and technology, with more than 20 years of experience in the video game industry. James has founded and led several companies, including two game studios and, most recently, cloud gaming provider PlayFab, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2018. He continues to work at Microsoft today, where he leads Microsoft’s Gaming Cloud, serving game creators with cutting edge tools and services. He has also worked professionally in both Tokyo and Shanghai, where he opened a studio for PopCap Games. James is a frequent speaker at industry conferences.




James has been fascinated by the role of technology in art since childhood. His first LED-based project was a Halloween costume that was a hit among his peers despite overheating and ultimately catching on fire. He got his professional start in theater, as a set and lighting designer at the college level, and as a carpenter at the Williamstown Theater Festival. His interests include music, hardware hacking, puzzles, games, visual effects, and amateur filmmaking. He has designed high-tech multi-day puzzle hunts, and the library of his home boasts a collection of 9 hidden compartments. James is also an advisor to Code.org, where he served in 2013 as chief evangelist for an Hour of Code initiative that introduced more than 20 million students around the world to computer science. He lives with his family near Seattle.

Casey Marvin

Casey Marvin is a multi-modal artist, experience designer, and fabricator based in California. Originally from Toronto, Canada, she completed her BA at McGill University and her JD from Western University, before pursuing her passion for art and technology.

As the Creative Director of the artist group known as The Moonlight Collective, Casey is currently focused on immersive projects that empower participants to explore their relationships with themselves, others and the world around them. She aims to inspire curiosity, vulnerability, and delight by creating whimsical dreamscapes that put participants at the center of a responsive, ever-evolving narrative. Her work leverages light and sound design to create new worlds.

Casey also does product design in highly technical industries - including fintech, advertising, AI + machine learning, and cloud - creating intuitive experiences that reach millions of users across the world. She created digital experiences for Fidelity Investments in New York. She later joined Microsoft’s AI + Research group to craft compelling experiences for the Bing platform. Since working at Microsoft, she has gone on to lead a design team within the Cloud + AI group. In 2021, Casey will be leading the UX Design team at TuSimple, focusing on crafting autonomous vehicle experiences.

In her spare time, you can find her sailing, skiing and wreck diving. When she finally sits down, she loves solving crosswords and making unusual (arguably useless) things. Her first project was a fully-functional, smoke-blasting femme-bot costume, that delighted party-goers for miles around. She is always open to collaborating on new projects and growing the maker community.

Paul McDaniel

Paul McDaniel, Co-Founder and Chief Software Engineer at The Moonlight Collective, has over 20 years of experience as an engineer, software architect, and program manager in Seattle, Washington. He loves bringing his artistic visions to life by leveraging the power of technology.

Paul has founded and led several companies, including Fortis Software and AutoLoop. He continues to work at Microsoft today, where he leads development efforts for multiple AI and machine learning platforms. Some of the projects he has worked on include Windows Machine Learning, Windows Mixed Reality, Intel Galileo, The Intellligent Car, and Windows Phone.

His interests include music, hardware, sailing and endurance sports. He recently completed the 2021 Ironman in Hawaii, his third time completing that race.