Mercer Labs Museum Review: Is Mercer Labs in NYC Worth Visiting?
Mercer Labs Museum of Art and Technology is the newest interactive digital art museum in New York City. This honest review of Mercer Labs shows you exactly what you will be seeing and experiencing inside so you can decide whether Mercer Labs is worth going to.
Digital Art museums are all the rage now all over the world and Mercer Labs is a digital art museum that opened in New York City in February of 2024.
Designed by Roy Nachum, Mercer Labs incorporates the usage of light, sound, touch, and smell into its various rooms, creating completely different interactive experiences throughout the whole exhibit.
With so little information online, most people only see glimpses of Mercer Labs from social media. So what is the entire experience like at Mercer Labs? Is Mercer Labs worth the hefty $50+ ticket price or is it a complete social media hype?
This complete Mercer Labs guide takes you to every single experience and room at Mercer Labs, with tips on how to visit each, so you can see if this is something that interests you. And just in case you are curious, I was not sponsored to visit, so all of my opinions are my own.
Where is Mercer Labs in New York City?
Mercer Labs is located in downtown Manhattan, across the street from the Oculus. Its address is 21 Dey St, New York, NY 10007. It occupies 36,000 square feet, making it one of the largest (if not the largest) immersive art museums in New York City.
It is easy to get to Mercer Labs, since it is close to many subway stations. The closest subway stations to Mercer Labs include:
- Cortlandt St: R, W train
- Fulton St: 4, 5 train
- World Trade Center: E train
- Fulton St: J, Z train
- Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall: 6 train (10 minute walk)
Since it is located very close to the 911 Memorial & Museum and the One World Observation Deck, you can potentially add Mercer Labs to your list of things to do in the financial district.
How Much is Mercer Labs
There are 4 types of tickets for Mercer Labs, all are only purchasable from their official website:
- Adult Ticket: $52
- Student Ticket (with valid student ID): $46
- Senior (65+) Ticket: $46
- Youth (Under 17) Ticket: $46
If you purchase the tickets online, you have to pay an extra $3 processing fee and NY tax on top of that, making the adult ticket coming out to be $59.88.
The website doesn’t say this but kids 3 or under are free.
What Do You See and Experience at Mercer Labs
Mercer Labs has 15 different experiences, most in different rooms from each other. As you go through this one way exhibit, you will be engaging all your senses. There are is Braille for almost all the exhibits, so those who are visually impaired can understand what the room is about.
Note that I don’t remember the names of every room, but I will share photos and experiences so you know what to expect.
The Window
When you first enter Mercer Labs, you will arrive in a circular room called The Window. The room is mostly dark with couches along the way, with a large circular display on the ceiling.
If you pay specific attention to the display, you will notice that it continues to change. Apparently it is reimagining the Oculus and it is a portal (and a window) to a different world. This also symbolizes your journey through Mercer Labs, where you will be immersed in a completely different world and forget about everything that happens outside.
This is the room where you will be given black shoe covers to put on your shoes, to protect the exhibits inside.
When you are done putting on shoe covers, you will move to the next room, the largest and one of the coolest rooms next.
The Map
The Map is a 5,000 square feet room featuring digital displays on all 4 walls. This is the largest and the tallest room at Mercer Labs, with a 40-foot ceiling height.
The displays transform throughout the experience but the theme is of nature. As we walked in, the first scene was of a giant white dove flying towards us, and throughout the experience, you will see the walls continue to transform and change.
There are 4 swings at each corner of the room, and since the digital display is on all the walls, you don’t always have to face forward to see it. You can very well stay in the back and still enjoy this experience without seeing tons of people in front of you.
Furthermore, there are places to sit in the middle of the room, so you can just relax and watch the screens for as long as you want.
I really enjoyed this room, I thought the display was amazing. This was a really good start to the museum experience.
The Elements
After The Map, you will exit on the opposite side of where you came in and go up stairs. The next room you will enter is called the Elements, a 4D sound room (apparently one of a kind) that looks smokey and mysterious.
The floor is full of carpet, and you can sit (or lie down) on the floor with your eyes closed to engage with the elements of earth, air, water, fire, and aether through sound. You can also feel the vibration as you sit on the floor.
Some other articles say that you get a blind fold when you enter this room, recreating what the artist did before he created Mercer Labs. When I visited, I was not given a blind fold, so not sure if they still give that out.
The Crown
The next small room is called the Crown, where a gold crown is displayed behind glass. From this room you can see The Map from above. Otherwise there wasn’t much else in this room.
Breathing
Breathing is one of the first infinity mirror rooms you will experience at Mercer Labs. The theme of the room is also nature, where you will see wave (or water)-like displays from all angles. Since the room is full of mirrors, you really lose sense of where it begins and where it ends.
This room is more of a corridor to the next and the most well known rooms at Mercer Lab, the Dragon.
The Dragon
The Dragon is probably the room that you see all over social media and there is a reason why. This room is made from 507,000 LED neurons-microchips, the largest room of its kind.
The room and the hallway leading up to it is dazzling, with volumetric lighting that changes and transforms to different colors and shapes. The mirrors surrounding the room (and on the floor) make the room feel infinite, and you feel like you are lost in a sea of light and feelings.
This is by far my favorite room at Mercer Labs and I think I spent 20 minutes in this room alone, enjoying the lights and taking photos and videos.
The Cave
The next room in the museum is called The Cave. It is a room made of pink hydrangea flowers (fake ones) with a few digital displays of monkeys inside.
One particular feature of this room is the smell, and it is perhaps the nicest smelling room of the entire museum.
You can spend some time sitting in front of the screen being mesmerized by the monkeys, but I personally prefer spending that time taking photos since, well, when is the next time you are in a cave full of pink flowers?
Cellar Lab
After going down a series of very long stairs, you will arrive at the Cellar Lab. At this point I’m not even sure if you are on the first floor or you are underground, because it took a few flights of stairs to get to this level.
The Cellar Lab is a long hallway (with lights) and a really nice bathroom. I believe the bathroom is co-ed according to their website.
After the bathroom, pay attention to the first room on your left.
Pneumatic Transmission
This room is made of tubes and you can type your wishes on a computer, which then gets transmitted through the tubes and zooms around the room. As you can imagine, this room is also full of mirrors besides the vibing tubes.
The tubes and lights, mostly pink, is another dazzling experience at Mercer Labs.
I actually didn’t even see a computer when I was in the room, but perhaps when you go you can find the computer to type in your wishes.
The Ecosystem
The Ecosystem is a large space at the end of the Cellar Lab. It has several different elements to it, a large digital screen display (with mirrors on two sides), a coloring area with a screen, a ball pit, a digital drawing center, and “the Game”, a real life size chess display area.
The digital screen is a long screen that displays (on loop) that includes scenes like a girl standing on a white horse next to the cherry blossom trees, The Crown (a kid wearing a crown), other cherry blossoms animations and other displays.
I think by far, the coolest experience in the Ecosystem is that you can use crayons to color these animals (already printed on a card), then give the card to a worker who then scans the card and whatever you just colored will come to life on the big screen. It is super cool to see your 2D creation come to life on a large screen.
If you are planning to bring your kids to Mercer Labs, this is perhaps the most fun interactive experience for them.
As you walk around the Ecosystem, you will also find a cool small ball pit with a colorful slide made of digital screens that you can slide down into the ball pit. This is also a huge hit with kids (and some adults of course).
The Game is a cool room with huge chess pieces. You can’t touch the chess pieces but they are cool to look at. The floor which you stand on has lights and screens on them, which continues to change and make you feel you are sort of in nature.
Then there is another small room with oil painting on canvas.
Archetype
The last room of Mercer Lab is the Archetype, a robotic arm that draws in sand. On the two sides of the room you will find these sand/ clay, where you can use your imagination and create anything you want.
Museum Store & Ice Cream
As with any museum, there is a store attached to the exit. While this store has some unique products specific to the lab, the coolest thing of the store is the mochi ice cream! Yup you read that right, this museum store sells sparkling beverages ($12) and different flavored mochi ice cream.
I didn’t try the ice cream but perhaps you can try and let me know how they compare to the ones you get at the supermarket.
Is Mercer Labs Worth It?
I think Mercer Labs is worth visiting at least once despite the high ticket price. It is the largest and most sophisticated immersive digital art experience in New York City. I have been to a few other ones all around the city and none of them can compare to Mercer Labs in terms of scale, experience, and design.
There are a few rooms that are pretty amazing at Mercer Labs, such as the Map (the first really big room), the Dragon, and the really cool bringing your 2D coloring cards to live experience. But there are also rooms where I think could be better repurposed for something cooler and more immersive.
While Mercer Labs is cool, if you are expecting TeamLabs type of displays and experiences, you may be disappointed. There are similar elements but overall the experience is not as breathtaking as TeamLabs.
Other Things to Know Before You Visit Mercer Labs
- The entire experience at Mercer Labs takes about 90 minutes. If you are really fast then you can finish in 60 minutes. I would recommend just taking your time and enjoying the exhibits.
- Mercer Labs does not allow strollers, so if you are planning to bring young kids, be prepared to carry them or have them walk the entire time.
- If your children are scared of dark or flashing lights, you should not bring them to Mercer Labs.
- Since many of the exhibits can be dark, if you want to take nice photos, you should wear light colored clothing.
- Mercer Labs opens at 11am on weekdays and 10am on the weekend. If you want a less crowded experience, always go before opening and be one of the first ones to enter. Weekdays are also less crowded than the weekend.
- Since you have to wear shoe covers at Mercer Labs, it’s best to not wear high heels or even light colored shoes, unless you don’t plan to take any photos with your feet inside.
- If you get visually induced dizziness, vertigo or seizures, you might want to reconsider before going to teamLabs.
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