Mercer Labs, Museum of Art and Technology is a unique new immersive museum created by Roy Nachum, the artist behind Rihanna’s famous 2016 “Anti” album cover, and his business partner Michael Cayre, a real estate developer.
The 36,000-square-foot space opened in early 2024 at 21 Dey Street, inside the bank building that used to be part of the now-nextdoor Century 21.
There are a total of 15 different rooms to explore, each one attacking all the senses upon entrance.
Some outstanding installations include the one that the staff refers to as "The Dragon," where a total of 500,000 individual LED lights hung on strings adorn a room and are lit up to created 3D videos, including one of a galloping horse, that will catch your attention.
Towards the end of the walkthrough is what can only be described as a cave of beautiful pink flowers (plastic ones), where there will soon be a bar as well. This is perhaps the most Instagrammable space within the museum as a whole, one that will likely come to represent the destination on social media once it officially opens.
An installation of a robot will also delight. Dubbed Kuka Robot, the machine is found behind a glass in the middle of a bed of sand. The robot makes sand castles, sketches and more while visitors look on wondering how it's all possible.
Taking a tour of the new Mercer Labs is something you might want to consider doing with kids.
Not only are the visual elements striking and entertaining but certain rooms are specifically targeted towards the younger set while appeasing adults as well.
There is the usual ball pit, this one boasting 25,000 balls that you can dive into after taking a ride on the slide on site.
Once down there, you’ll also get to play inside the interactive chess room or take a turn in a fruit ninja-like game—albeit with asteroids—on one of two giant screens on premises.
Perhaps the truest marriage between technology and "humanity" is a coloring space where kids are encouraged to use crayons to color in images of dinosaurs and all sorts of other fictional characters seen in Nachum's work. Once completed, the design can be fed into a nearby machine that will then recreate a 3D version of the character on a screen that will "forever live" in the digital space of the museum.
A mere walk through Mercer Labs makes one thing clear: the immersive space can be much more than that given its size and the clear technological capabilities embedded in each room.
That’s something that wasn’t lost on the founders: folks can rent out different rooms. May we suggest a very unique and technologically avant-garde wedding in a room filled with pink flowers, perhaps?
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