The Paradox Museum Miami Aims to Trick the Eye

01Paradox Museum Miami is a mixture of art, science, and fun.

02The 1,000-square-meter museum is housed in Miami's Wynwood Arts and Entertainment area.

03It has more than 70 public displays, known as exhibits.

04Executive Director Samantha Impellizeri says these exhibits challenge the imagination.

05She added that visitors can walk away from the experience with some really fun and interesting material for social media.

06Paradox Museum has more than ten locations throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.

07The Miami location, which opened in 2022, was the first in North America.

08The term paradox is central to the museum and what visitors experience.

09A paradox is a situation or thing that has seemingly opposite or contradictory qualities.

10Each paradox is uniquely tied to its community, Impellizeri said.

11So as you walk throughout the experience, you'll notice different themes and art installations that directly reflect not only Miami, but the Wynwood community specifically.

12Many of the displays at Paradox Museum suggest old carnival funhouses, buildings that had devices and rooms designed to surprise or amaze visitors.

13Examples include the mirror maze, the spinning tunnel, and the upside-down room.

14The difference is that Paradox Museum explains the math and science behind each illusion.

15We're a top field trip destination for pre-K all the way up through college students, Impellizeri said.

16She added that the museum has a large number of educational activities that students can do before, during, and after the visit.

17Like any museum, Paradox Museum plans to change its exhibits to keep visitors coming back.

18We're not going to be the same space in a year to three years from now, Impellizeri said.

19Paradox Museum Miami introduced a new zero-gravity room last fall.

20Visitors can turn their smartphone cameras on and attach their phones to a spinning holder.

21Then they step into a large, slowly moving room designed to look like the inside of a space station.

22The resulting video makes it look as though they are walking up the wall and ceiling inside a room unaffected by gravity.

23Paradox Museum is part of a movement towards so-called immersive art experiences.

24These kinds of art experiences often use technology to make the visitors feel like they are taking part in art, rather than just looking at it.

25Immersive experiences around the world are increasing in popularity, Impellizeri noted.

26Immersive art experiences have opened all over the world during the past ten years or so.

27Examples include a company called Meow Wolf with several locations in the western United States, as well as a Van Gogh exhibit that has been traveling through North America, Europe, and Asia since 2017.

28Super Blue Miami, which opened in 2021, is another example.

29Visitors generally take 60 to 90 minutes to make their way through Paradox Museum.

30Tickets normally cost $26 for adults and teenagers and $20 for children.

31Seventeen-year-old Facundo Ildaraz and his family came to Miami from Argentina.

32Ildaraz said his mother found Paradox Museum online.

33He said it turned out to be a great chance to take fun photos with his family.

34I've been laughing since I went inside, Ildaraz said.

35It's really amazing.

36Dennis Spiegel is head of a business advisory company called International Theme Park Services, Inc.

37Spiegel said immersive experiences are a natural progression of location-based entertainment.

38Location-based entertainment includes go-kart tracks, laser tag, paintball, indoor skydiving, escape rooms, and trampoline parks.

39These are activities that take visitors a few hours to go through.

40It's a lot of little things that we've had in the industry for years, heightened by our new technology, to make the experience new and something people haven't seen, Spiegel said.

41I'm John Russell.