Urban Safari : Van Gogh
The Immersive Experience
Those of us who grew up with laser light shows at the Museum of Science’s planetarium had a little bit of déjà vu at the Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience at the the Strand Theater.
Come for the sunflowers, stay for immersive room at the end.
The show was not really about Van Gogh, and although some of the installations provided information about the artist and his life, this exhibit was more about a different way to “engage” with his art.
“Wait, he painted how many paintings of sunflowers? Did he know that?”
For those who are not…fluent…in Van Gogh, the first few galleries set the stage with some background info, a couple of multimedia and 3D installations, and even a few setups where one can step “inside” a few of his paintings. All of these installations were quite innovative, but they were really to set up the viewer for the final “experience at the end of the hall”.
Whack, but innovative.
In the second gallery, visitors were treated to a glimpse of the final installation. In a small viewing area, large projections of Van Gogh’s bouquet paintings were overlaid a large 3D physical vase. Check out the clip to see the transformation and what awaits visitors at the final exhibit. It was kinda cool…
The Experience
After seeing the vase video, we thought “OK. Pretty interesting, but not really living up to the hype.” Then we parted the curtain and walked into an open room about 10x the volume of the previous ones. The narrow walkway leading into the space helped amplify the feeling of sudden spaciousness…all in all, a pretty effective effect!
Nobody really knew the purpose of this installation, but it was really cool: the chairs and carpeted floor were comfy, and the music was soothing. (None of the above is meant as a dis.)
In the room were chairs around the perimeter, throw-rugs all over the place, and pillows for those who want to take it all in lying on the floor. The choreographed images and videos shown on the four walls and floor of the room were from a series of strategically placed, aspect- and keystone-corrected, large screen projectors.
Yes, go-normous sunflowers are just a teeny bit scary…
Kind of a little bit of “wow.” Especially if you stopped to watch the video explaining his brush strokes and choice of colors.
The overall effect was quite mesmerizing and very immersive. One of the favorite for us were the enormous sunflowers floating around. The falling rain drop splashing on the floor was also very well done.
Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience is a traveling exhibit and we would recommend it for adults. It can be interesting for small kids, but we would leave them at home if they can’t sit still for 30 minutes or more to enjoy the full “experience.”
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