29Rooms: Nice on the Feed but Awkward IRL
For my birthday in 2019, one of my best friends Anna snagged us tickets to attend 29Rooms when the exhibit traveled to Toronto. She knew about my love of the Museum of Ice Cream and immersive Instagram-worthy exhibits. We were stoked.
A cute mirror selfie we snapped at 29Rooms.
29Rooms is Refinery29’s interactive exhibit that features 29 different rooms which range from interactive galleries, sensorial exhibits, and installations. Each room is created by an artist that interprets the year’s theme, which in 2019 was “Expand Your Reality”. They are relaunching in December 2021 as restrictions around the pandemic lessen. Their Instagram account is beautifully curated, their attendees are star-studded and the artists are clearly geniuses. All elements you’d THINK make the experience great.
The year prior, Anna and I did a weekend in NYC together. We went on a tour of NBC’s Saturday Night Live set. I remember the tour guide saying “some people feel underwhelmed when they see the sets in real life and notice just how small they are. You have to understand that the best seat to watch the show will always be your couch at home. It was designed that way.”
Anna looking very fashionable in Julie Kane’s top lash exhibit. This was probably my favourite room. (Even if it was the one we got elbowed in!)
Similar to the classic sets of SNL, it is clear that 29Rooms exhibits were designed for a screen. The screen in this case is our cellphones. You could get a great picture in the 29Rooms and the creativity and vision of the artists are very clear, but seeing the exhibits IRL left something to be desired. We were there for just over an hour and it felt like we were in a garage filled with mini theatre sets. It was too bright to feel like a party. The layout seemed somewhat random and we didn’t know where to start.
Eventually, we had fun popping around to the different rooms, did get elbowed out of the way a couple of times by people mid-photoshoot, and overall it was an okay night. I also know for a fact Anna and I enjoy each other’s company sleeping on the cold floor of the Chicago airport, so we were obviously going to make the most of our night.
The seamlessness of experiences like 29Rooms is really important in order to not ask too much from the attendees. You want people to step in and right away be transported into another universe. Some of the exhibits at 29Rooms were successful on an individual basis, however there was a lack of interconnectedness between exhibits. In a traditional museum, you walk from exhibit to exhibit. In many immersive experiences these days, you are transported from start to finish. 29Rooms fell somewhere in between, not succeeding at achieving either a classic museum or immersive vibe.
Anna sitting across from me and us wondering what to do next after doing a drawing each other at a table. You can kinda see the garage vibe in between rooms behind her!
I can imagine with creating these experiences, there will always be trade-offs. Intense lighting is better for people wanting to capture photos, but you might sacrifice the correct ambiance. Separate exhibits might allow you to travel with the project more easily but can feel out of place for venues they weren’t designed for. Working with a large team of artists means you get a lot of variety, but you might lack the correct amount of connectedness. The challenge is to decide what pieces are the most important and find how can innovative solutions create compromise.
Me (in awe) at Shanghai Disneyland.
Disney amusement parks are an example of where they do not skimp on the details. It is incredibly difficult to get a look behind the curtain during your time in a Disney park. You’ve probably heard the rumours of hidden doors and bottomless garbage cans, designed so you never have to remember that your experience is constructed. Even lines for rides, which typically are long and boring, are built to feel a part of the story. (Funnily enough, Anna and I attended Shanghai Disneyland together as well and both say it was one of the best days of our lives!)
The Museum of Ice Cream decorates every inch of their venues with the same colour palettes as to not break the experience. You’re greeted outdoors to pink velvet stanchions. Each path allows you to explore the rooms in a narrative that is pre-designed to evoke an emotional journey. MOIC keeps the importance of photography in mind without sacrificing the ambiance.
Me taking great Instagram pictures at the Museum of Ice Cream, San Francisco while also having the immersive time of my life.
29Rooms will be successful as long as there are Instagram influencers still curating their feeds and people looking for a fun experience to attend with their friends. However, I would challenge Refinery29 with their upcoming launch in 2021 to think of ways they can create experiences that transport people for their entire visit. The team and artists clearly have the creativity, marketing and skills to curate really beautiful exhibits. However they need to push beyond the priority of getting a good selfie.
After my visit, I wasn’t sure if I was being too critical. But after reading reviews on Yelp of the NYC experience, it sounds like I’m not alone in thinking that the price was high for the final execution, the sponsorships were too in your face, the Instagram focus was too high and the concept, while cool, didn’t come together as marketed.
There are already too many critics who think these artistic pop-ups are shallow and only designed for Instagram. I know they can be so much more than that. They are places where people come to disconnect from the digital world, bond with their friends, and challenge their greater worldview. People are craving authenticity and awe.
The most memorable experiences are the ones that creatively transport you into a new world and 29Rooms has all the right ingredients to do just that but needs a little refining.