Mercer Labs

Such a cool experience!! Perfect for an activity with friends, date night, or family afternoon. there was something for everyone!! Time stopped as soon as you stepped inside and you were removed from the outside world. Awe struck by landscape created with visual and audio affect to transport you to a world with your own thoughts and imagination. Definitely recommend!

I was totally blown away by this immersive art installation. I've gone to so many and I was highly impressed with each room. I was immediately drawn in by the first room and then I was completely drawn in till we were done. Expect to stay there for a couple of hours. This is a must for art lovers

Super attentive and organized staff and the exhibit itself was incredible!! The large-scale installations totally immerse you in a mind-bending experience with every room you enter. It was trippy and magical and has gorgeous visuals. My fiancé and I especially loved all the exhibits with mirrors. One of the mirrored rooms with floating lights (I believe it was called the Dragon Room) made us feel like we were in a big city in the middle of a galaxy. So cool! We HIGHLY recommend you check out this exhibit. It's great for families (we saw a lot of kids), romantic dates, or even to check out with a group of friends. You will not be disappointed!

I received complimentary admission in exchange for an honest review.

It seems like every month there's a new flashy art experience opening in New York City. And while Merch Labs isn't a museum per se, it is one of the best of these kind of art experiences.


The Mercer Labs journey has guests visiting rooms with different art installations. I really loved some of them, however, I was disappointed that there wasn't really anything that connected them thematically (or at least not one that was noticeable). Nor was there information about the artists. Some spaces had staff members who gave guidance on how to experience the pieces and answered questions, but many had us trying to figure out what the point was.


We went on a Monday afternoon and were pleased that the space wasn't packed with people or screaming children. We had plenty of space to move around and take our time to look at each installation. This experience felt more upscale than others and targeted towards adults and young adults so I wouldn't recommend it for younger kids.

Throughout the installations, we also encountered a lot of flashing lights. One room was all loud noise and haze. While staff members do provide advisories before these rooms and allow you to skip them if you have sensitivities, it seemed like a good amount of the installations do include bright and flashing lights and if you were to skip them, you would miss a lot of what you're paying for.

We also encountered a lot of stairs. I wasn't expecting to be climbing up and down a couple flights between installations. And we weren't given a heads up beforehand.

While I personally don't think the experience is worth the hefty price tag, if you're someone who loves the immersive art experiences, this is one that is definitely worth checking out. It's the best one I've been to in NYC

Toured the Mercer Labs exhibition with my boyfriend over the weekend. 15 immersive rooms, all very different from one another. The pneumatic tubes and blinking lights that became different shapes were our favorite rooms.

The guides were great and very kind. My boyfriend and i both wish there'd been plaques or scans where we could learn more about the algorithms or other internal programming of the different rooms.

Great afternoon all around!

I was really excited for this experience. I had seen similar immersive style art installations on social media over the last few years and didn't fully know what to expect walking in to this one.

Overall it was a really neat project withe some very visually appealing things. We ended up spending about 75min here going through roughly one full loop of content in each room.

Pros:
- Very easy to get to in the city. It's located right by WTC/The Oculus which has just about every subway line within a 2-3 blocks.
- Visually, the projections and light walls were really cool.
- Each room has different modes of engaging your senses. Either using projections in combination with sound and stylized seating, LED walls, LED string lights all in combination with mirrors, physical textures in a surrounding in coordination with scent stimulation, or sound/vibration experiences.
- There's something for everyone of all ages. The two main floors feature large rooms to stimulate the senses and then the third floor is geared more towards children with a coloring area, a smaller LED/projection room they can interact with, and a LED panel slide that goings into a ball pit as well as a sand room where you can play with kinetic sand while a giant robot arm does the same.

Cons (mostly practical interaction):
- SIGNAGE! This was my biggest issue of the whole experience. There was no signage anywhere directing you where to go or how to move from one room to the next and when I was there, more often than not, there was no one around to help guide you.
- Expect to go up and down a few flights of stairs for the full through line experience without having to double back or exit to random areas to access an elevator.
- Everyone is required to wear protective covers over your shoes throughout the whole experience which in a few of the rooms can be a little slippery.
- There's no instruction of when to take off the shoe coverings or real location to do so, as well as no convenient trash can to dispose of them as well as the eye masks distributed for one room so you're left holding on to random items.
- Staff was all still very new when we went and so they didn't know exactly how to direct someone needing ADA accessibility or have answers to some basic questions. Given time, I'm sure this will work itself out.

Overall it was a great experience that was neat to be immersed inside of the art.

I would recommend you go out of your way to miss this. The 'art' is puddle-shallow, in most rooms you'll find renderings of monkeys and children with crowns pulled over their eyes. There is a smokey, perfumed, fur-lined parlor where you can lie down....great? And infinity rooms, while fun, are nothing new. Save your money.

Great rooms overall, but unsure if I would pay 50 bucks again for the experience if I'm honest

The retail store is an utter scam operation. We went there to purchase a shirt for my son. We handed them a shirt that fit him and they took it away and brought back another shirt that they sold to us. That was the wrong size. We discovered this after coming home and made the trek all the way back to Mercer labs the next day to get this exchanged. The person working refused to exchange the shirt and refused to let us talk to the manager and refused to acknowledge that their associate had anything to do with the mistake. I have never seen a worse customer service experience that followed from a company's errors in my life. Further, they never answer the phone and they never answered their emails. The museum is reasonable, but you should avoid the store at all costs.

Let me start by saying that I have not been to such an amazing exhibition as Mercer Labs lately. And I go to a lot of them. I love the idea of having time to stay in a room, there are 15 to visit, at my own pace. The Map The first room is 5000 square feet of space with laser projections of different themes and sounds. Some 4 swings are in the room, which makes it perfect for some cool pictures. And it gets better as you continue the experience throughout three floors. Led-filled rooms make it very trippy but not overwhelming. Is such a great experience for all ages. I just wish to have found more information on each room, if I have to give a con.
I will go back again once they open in February. Consider spending 1.5 2 hrs inside!!

Fascinating feature to start with of blindness and agency/identity. I am an adult but a former educator. Though tech heavy kids loved the tactile ( ball pit, magic sand, coloring) alongside the electronic. I would recommend for ages 7 and up. Don't wear skirts unless you enjoy being on display. The taste lab looked like a gimmick and is pricey but solid and tasty beverages. Get a mochi at the end- passion fruit was yummy.