At least, that's how I felt when I saw such a scene in a small exhibition room inside Pantone’s first-ever immersive digital art installation for its color of the year.

In 2000, its inaugural year, that color was Cerulean Blue.

Twenty years later today, blue returns, once again, as color of the year  — albeit in a different hue, in a way that speaks to a different audience, and in response to a different technological moment.

Classic Blue  — PANTONE 19-4052, more precisely — offers feelings of protection, stability, and clarity “as we cross the threshold into a new era” and “as technology continues to race ahead of the human ability to process it all,” according to Pantone.

But as I moved from the small exhibition room where I stood, pass the augmented reality bar nearby, to a flat-screen TV with a built-in sensor that transforms my movements into linear forms; I began to wonder why such a message of refuge so openly embraced an art space so inherently futuristic and technological. .

The 30-minute video installation in the main exhibition area downstairs cycle through nine different ideas.

The iconic image appears just after the installation transitions from a sci-fi-esque, outer space view of “earth” to “mountains,” and just before it transitions to a geometric interpretation of “smoke.” Big bang theory meets the story of Virgin Mary and Jesus.

As the 18 projectors around the space continued to emit blue lights and as the image of Madonna faded away, I was reminded of how the color blue is fundamental to our understanding of reality.

In a gift shop next to the main exhibition space, ARTECHOUSE chief creative director Sandro Kereselidze told me how these references to nature relate to our relationship with not only the color blue, but also with technology — especially since it’s used today by social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Some are using their phones to document the moment; others are enjoying the installation without technology