I'm not sure what it was, but I really enjoyed it.
First thing on a Saturday morning in New York City we headed to Mercer Labs Museum of Art and Technology, an imposing art deco building located directly across the street from the Oculus at World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. We had tickets to "Limitless", an exhibition by Roy Nachum where he "deconstructs and re-builds the relationship between art and technology." I actually have no idea what that means but it looked like it might be an immersive and interactive exhibit and something fun to explore.
The ticketing website was not much help. This is how the exhibit is described:
Nachum transitions between narrative and abstraction, inviting exploration of the intricate spatial framework of source imagery and technical direction. The exhibition addresses the challenges and possibilities that technology has opened in art, and what it means to live in the digital age. Utilizing digital tools and machine intelligence to challenge human perception. His experimental approach incorporates elements from art history, conceptualism, and interactivity, to defy conventional artistic boundaries and explore complex psych-visual factors like sensory substitution, hypnagogic imagery, internal representations, and mental rotation.
Thats a lot of words. I'm pretty good with words, but I think knew less about the exhibit after reading it over a few times than before. I have doubts that the author had any idea what they were saying, but perhaps that's the point.
So we were cautiously optimistic as we arrived at our scheduled ticket time. We scheduled our visit for when the museum opened. Each ticket is good for a 15 minute window. Once you enter you move at your own pace through a series of 15 unique rooms/installations over 3 floors. It probably takes about 90 minutes to work your way through all of them.
Some rooms had projection mapping, another was all about sound, some were mirrored boxes, one room had things shooting through tubes, others had technology that you could interact with. You could even slide into a ball pit. You bet my 60 year old ass played in the ball pit. Half way through was a room that was a cave of fluffy pink flowers where you could buy a drink, sit or lie on the floor and relax.
Each room is completely different. Although there were some recurring themes and designs like human and animal like figures wearing a crown and braille writing, I have no idea what any of it meant. I'm not sure if the exhibit was trying to communicate anything more than the simple joys of discovering and experiencing the sensory stimulations that each room offered.
The exhibit was everything I had hoped it would be. For 90 minutes we sensed and explored trippy worlds that felt like beautiful surreal experiences. The rooms never felt too over-crowded but I'm happy that we went first thing in the morning so there were no people ahead of us. It often felt like we had the spaces to ourselves. It's definitely a place to share with a friend. It's not often that you can share a magical experience with someone.
Highly recommended.
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