Experiential Exhibitions: The Way Forward?

by Hania Afifi

As I walked towards The Source and through the all-engulfing mirror tunnel with transforming lights, my heart began to race.  77, 78, 82bpm my smart watch tracked.  It kept climbing until I looked up from my watch to find myself inside The Source.  Smooth ergonomic metal sculptures that resemble oversized pebbles were scattered across a 2-levels floor.  A 5m demi-sphere took centre stage on an elevated platform signalling its superior stance.  All were contained within a circular room with floor to ceiling blank walls that seamlessly blended with the floors – challenging your perception of space dimension. 

Within minutes all went dark and The Source came alive.  Colourful electromagnetic waves appeared to be emitting from the sphere and travelled across to the walls.  An eery noise played in the background and I could not help feeling that I was inside a scene from The Matrix.

AYA Universe is the latest immersive entertainment park that opened its doors last December in Dubai.  Spread across 40,000 square feet, the other worldly experiential space combines art and technology to deliver the next generation of storytelling.  Divided into 12 zones, visitors are encouraged to play, dream and drift as they command observatories full of stars, roam gardens blooming light and traverse rivers that bridge the infinite.  I even got to walk into an anti-gravity waterfall where the water runs upside down!

Alexander Heller, CEO of Hyperspace, the parent company that owns AYA Universe explained, “We chose Dubai as the first destination for AYA, as it is a city invested in future-culture, with a demanding and digitally active tourist and resident market.  AYA has been designed to evoke wonder and awe in an out-of-this world trip to a beautiful universe that will light up social media feeds everywhere”.

Heller, the former director of Leila Heller Art Gallery has his finger on the pulse.  He recognises visitors’ needs for immersive and interactive displays.  As we hail in the experience economy and as Gen Z’s; who are digital natives, enter the workforce with larger disposable income on their hands that they are happy to spend on leisurely ventures, culture destinations must elevate their gameplay.  Whether they be engaged in highbrow, middlebrow or lowbrow culture products, they need to acknowledge their visitors’ digital and entertainment needs.  Classic object displays with corresponding plaques may no longer cut it.  Performances in which visitors are passive viewers on a chair may not hit the mark.  Rows and rows of shelved products will not get your shoppers to pick up the items you want.

“We design our experiences around the visitor”, elaborates Heller who regards AYA as an ideal spot for future entertainment content.  The endemic urge to share our happenings on social media created an insatiable appetite for new and extraordinary experiences – two qualities on which AYA delivers and many culture venues fall short. 

Indeed, it is the same outlook that prompted the Dubai government before Heller, to develop the Museum of the Future.  The magnificent building whose exterior propels the millenary art of Arabic calligraphy into the 21^st century is designed to relay a future-looking narrative in an immersive and interactive space.  The museum’s visitors are transported into a different universe and a different time (the year is 2071) in which the reality outside its walls seizes to exist and the future is imagined.   

Like AYA Universe, the visitors embark on a journey in which they inhabit new skies, discover new worlds and witness the wonders of Nature as they walk through a digital Amazon before taking sanctuary in a virtual oasis.  Unlike AYA, Museum of the Future follows a defined narrative like most museums but places the visitors at the heart of the narrative rather than the object or artwork on display.

A similar approach can be seen with Infinity des Lumières digital exhibitions in which visitors are immersed in the artworks that are projected on a monumental scale across the walls and floors.  A Dubai off-shoot that was set-up in 2021, the company has successfully imported the digital art concept championed by Culturespaces Digital; founded in Paris in 1990, to showcase masterworks by world renowned artists including Van Gogh, Paul Klee, William Kandinsky and others.

As visitor of Infinity des Lumieres Van Gogh exhibition explains, “I definitely prefer exhibitions with more immersive experiences, as opposed to the traditional setup. In a traditional setup, I’ll spend a maximum of a minute looking at each piece (maybe less if the museum’s crowded). But with an immersive experience, my attention is captured so much more fully giving me the space to take my time, and really see and appreciate the details. I take in so much more, and remember most of the stuff. Also, my friends can be iffy about visiting museums, but it’s so much easier to convince them to come with me to experiences like this.”

Indeed, the importance of providing visitors with a multi-sensorial experience has become crucial in attracting visitors to the degree that brands like Louis Vuitton invested generously in its worldwide store displays to mark the elaborate product launch of their latest Yayoi Kusama collection of 2023. Their Tokyo debut featured a massive life-like sculpture of Kusama with her signature red bob midst interiors that boast and all-over yellow polka dots floor, shiny mirror balls that spell-out the LV logo and reflective mirror ceilings that recall Kusama’s Instagram-friendly Infinity Mirrored Roomwhich was first showcased in 2011.  

Similar efforts have been witnessed in their signature stores in New York City, Paris, Chengdu and London.  Activating storefront design, interior retail transformation and sculptural art to provide visitors with a delightfully memorable experience that will have them coming back for more, while parting away with a few hundred if not thousands of dollars on every visit.

In short, cultural destinations need to factor in the entertainment and digital value of their displays when conceiving an exhibition or event.  It is not enough to present a compelling story or provoke with a challenging notion.  They need to consider who they are addressing and devise ways to attract them to their space and keep them in it snapping tens of Instagrammable pictures.