FIOH

FIOH

Forever In Our Hearts

An interactive light sculpture where anyone can add someone they love, live.

Stefano Kajatt (Aplete), Las Vegas. 2019 to now.

Guests seated at night watching a tribute of two friends and their dog appear on the heart
Bradford & Rigo, a tribute shared in real time. Las Vegas, 2025.

The work

A guest scans a QR code, uploads a photo of someone they love, and watches that person appear on a glowing geometric heart in real time.

Each tribute is held inside projected light, a visual world that responds to every new arrival, and original music. No app, no account, no barrier to entry. Pets are welcome too.

FIOH holds grief and celebration in the same frame. It holds the people we’ve lost, and the people still with us.

  1. ScanPoint your phone at the QR code by the heart. The upload page opens in English or Spanish.
  2. UploadAdd a photo of someone you love. A parent, a partner, a friend, a pet.
  3. WitnessThey appear on the heart, alone for a moment, then joined by everyone else’s loved ones.
Live demo: a phone upload appearing on the heart in real time.

Where it began

I’ve been drawing since elementary school, and drawing death nearly as long. FIOH is me learning to hold it with love.

After losing my cousin to cancer, I could not process his death until I walked into the Temple at Burning Man, a structure where hundreds of people leave photos and letters for the ones they’ve lost before it burns. Watching strangers grieve together hit me like a ton of bricks. I broke down and had one of the healthiest cries of my life. That collective healing was the most honest thing I had ever experienced, and it deserved to exist beyond the desert and beyond the burn: permanent, portable, and open to anyone with a phone.

Ofrendas for Día de los Muertos, the Temple, a photo on a home altar: people have always made places to set the faces of their loved ones in the light. FIOH is one more, made with the tools of now. Technology usually adds another layer between us and the people we’ve lost. FIOH turns the phone in your pocket the other way, taking a private feeling, love or grief or both, and letting a room witness it together.

It began as a sketch in 2019, became a paper study, then a cardboard heart, then a public installation. It holds every outlet I love in one place: sculpture, music, video, and the gathering of people. The hope is a network of hearts, where anyone can send love to a place they can’t be.

The Temple at Burning Man silhouetted against the rising sun through desert dust
Temple sunrise, Burning Man. The structure that started everything.

The record

From the first sketch to the sculpture today, in the order it happened. Select any photo to see it larger.

2019

  1. 2019The original sketchInk on paper, digital color added in a phone app. Faint beams rise from the heart’s crown: the Finale Tribute, drawn six years before the software existed.

2023

  1. November 2023Paper study, first lightCut paper lattice with internal light, about eight inches wide. The geometry works.

2024

  1. February 2024Projecting the templateThe unfolded template, projected onto cardboard and traced at full scale.
  2. February 2024First cardboard heartTaped together on a bedroom floor, about four feet wide.
  3. March 2024Cutting the lattice by handTriangular panels cut from cardboard with a utility knife.
  4. March 2024The full concept, at scaleGlowing heart, lit cloud, and handwritten names on the pedestal, mocked up at night.
  5. March 2024The golden heartCardboard lattice and gold foil tape, about five feet wide.
  6. April 2024The complete maquetteCut paper, printed portraits, polyfill cloud.
  7. 2024Visions of Loved OnesMixed media on paper. The painting of what FIOH strives to become.
  8. October 17, 2024SNRG: installedThe mockup’s first public night, inside a tent at SNRG Festival, a Burning Man regional in Beatty, Nevada. Guests felt the music through vibroacoustic cushions.
  9. October 18, 2024SNRG: the windThe morning after. Desert wind flattened the tent.
  10. October 19, 2024SNRG: under the treeRe-sited in the open air. Adaptation became part of the artwork.
  11. October 2024A couple’s tributeOn the heart beneath the tree, SNRG.

  12. It made me tear up to come up after the fireworks and see my dad on the heart.

    A guest at SNRG, 2024

2025

  1. June 2025 A celebration of life

    A private gathering for a friend’s family in Las Vegas, with guests sharing their loved ones on the heart. FIOH was built and activated twice on under $1,000.

  2. This is beautiful, thank you for doing this.

    A friend at the celebration of life, 2025

  3. October 2025 Building the software

    Quoted up to $90,000 for a basic version, I start building FIOH’s platform myself, in collaboration with AI tools.

2026

  1. January 2026 The current platform

    The codebase behind today’s FIOH begins. It has been in continuous development since.

  2. March 2026Old heart, new templateDrafting the v1 panels on corrugated plastic, with the golden heart standing behind.
  3. June 2026Wiring plan, annotatedInside the v1 shell: LED strips placed, routing drawn over the photo.
  4. July 2026Projection-mapped v1Corrugated plastic, approximately 62 × 40 × 22 inches.
  5. July 2026Faces in the heartTributes woven into projected light on v1.
  6. November 2026 Día de los Muertos

    Next: FIOH at Winchester Cultural Center, Las Vegas.

Notes on the making

Light and form

FIOH v1 is a geometric heart of triangular panels, approximately 62 × 40 × 22 inches and about 6 feet overall on its base. I built it from white corrugated plastic because it’s translucent: LED strips on the interior rear faces glow through the back and sides, while the front faces take the projection. Like the golden heart before it, v1 began as a flat template traced at full size.

The Spirit Heart is a collaboration: a rhinestoned heart with internal light, made for FIOH by Stephanie Kajatt.

Spirit Heart, by Stephanie Kajatt. Plastic, rhinestones, internal light.

Sound

I’ve played bass for nearly twenty years, and FIOH’s score, FIOH Vol. 1, is three pieces I wrote and recorded for the heart. The first is a binaural ambient work of textures and EBow bass, more a feeling than a song, made to hold space without asking for attention. The second folds two fingerpicked guitar progressions into each other like a snake eating its tail, always evolving, until it opens into harmonized guitars. The third is a piano piece with horns and processed ocean waves, its imperfect tempo kept because it felt honest.

At SNRG, a vibroacoustic pack under the cushions let guests feel the music in their bodies. Playing bass through one is my favorite way to write. FIOH can also be performed, with live musicians playing alongside the heart.

Worlds

A tribute doesn’t sit on top of an image. It lives inside a world: an original visual environment that surrounds each person on the heart and responds whenever a new tribute arrives. Worlds can be made for a place, a season, or a culture. For Día de los Muertos, an arch of marigolds frames the heart like an ofrenda, and petals gather at its lower rim.

The question that drives this part of the work: how do you build an environment that honors a stranger’s loved one, and still moves someone meeting it for the first time?

The software

I started building the platform myself in October 2025, in collaboration with AI tools, after being quoted up to $90,000 for a basic version. I’m dyslexic and had no coding background. The current platform’s codebase dates from January 2026 and has been in continuous development since.

The software is part of the sculpture, and its rules are part of the artwork:

  • There is always a free way to take part.
  • No app, no account. The upload page speaks English or Spanish, following the guest’s phone.
  • A casual phone photo still reads well on the heart. The background is removed and the person is framed consistently, positioned to sit naturally inside the heart’s geometry.
  • Every tribute is reviewed by AI before it reaches the heart, with hard child-safety lines that no AI judgment can override and a live operator able to step in at any moment.
  • Names are protected, not filtered. FIOH never uses a word blocklist, because blocklists erase real people. A name can never cost someone their photo.
  • Individual photos are deleted daily.

The Finale Tribute

The beams in the 2019 sketch were the first drawing of the Finale Tribute, a closing ceremony for the night. The evening’s tributes gather and swirl together as the music swells, then rise from the crown of the heart as light. It is in development now.

Details

Title
FIOH (Forever In Our Hearts)
Artist
Stefano Kajatt (Aplete)
Dates
2019 to present. Version one completed 2026.
Medium
Interactive light and sound sculpture. Corrugated plastic, interior LED lighting, front projection, custom software, original music.
Dimensions
Approximately 62 × 40 × 22 inches; about 6 feet overall on its base.
Software
Custom live upload, moderation, and display platform, built by the artist in collaboration with AI tools.
Sound
FIOH Vol. 1, original score composed and recorded by the artist.
Participation
Free. Any phone, by QR code, in English or Spanish. No app or account.
Collaboration
Spirit Heart by Stephanie Kajatt.
Shown
SNRG Festival, Beatty, Nevada, October 2024. A celebration of life, Las Vegas, June 2025. Upcoming: Día de los Muertos, Winchester Cultural Center, Las Vegas, November 2026.
Stefano playing handpan against red sandstone, wearing an Andean textile
Playing handpan, Valley of Fire.

The artist

Stefano Kajatt, who works under the name Aplete, is a multidisciplinary artist based in Las Vegas, born in Asunción, Paraguay, to Peruvian parents. For more than two decades he has made drawings, ceramics, music, sound, and large-scale installations.

A bassist for nearly twenty years, he has played stages from the House of Blues to Brooklyn Bowl and Burning Man. He created the original sound design for Spiruvious at Burning Man in 2013, and has spent years on crews building large-scale works shown at Burning Man, Life is Beautiful, and AREA15, including the Forest House art car structure, where he now leads event assembly. He created Playful Pastime, a community arts event of live music, open jams, live painting, and game nights that has given backing-band support to more than twenty local songwriters.

He received a $10,000 sculpture scholarship in 2006 and an SNRG Art Grant in 2024, and was named to the City of Las Vegas Pre-Qualified Sculptors List in 2024. FIOH brings every discipline he practices into one work.