Meow Wolf Goes Commercial In Las Vegas at AREA51
Meow Wolf has brought interactive arts to the world’s stage with the opening of OmegaMart inside of AREA15, an immersive warehouse of art experiences.
Quintessentially Meow Wolf-inspired light art, quirky storytelling, and immersive environments meet Las Vegas scales and prices, an invitation onboard an artful magic carpet, accelerating along a pathway of credit card swipes.
An attraction park for the experiential curious, there is so much to love. Like a mall of technology-meets-art attractions, there are things like VR arcades, immersive audiovisual experiences, zipline-like electric dual-track suspension rides, distilleries, cocktail bars and futuristic candy marts, retail stores selling burning-man attire for the whole fam, and a visit to Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart. The focal art experience of the space is a spin-off of Santa Fe’s House of Eternal Return concept, creatively recast into a post-apocalyptic grocery store setting.
The complex offers a first-of-its kind collaborative venture between real estate development firm Fisher Brothers and creative agency Beneville Studios. And truly, it is a first in so many ways. A huge feat for interactive art, and the fact that it’s free to enter (at least, for now) is progress towards making this expensive-to-create style of art for fans from all walks of life.
Expectations for the venture are sky high for fans of Meow Wolf, whose total involvement is unclear, as the most common location tag for the space reads MEOW WOLF LAS VEGAS, but only The Omega Mart claims to be fully branded, and the rest of the space contains parallel offerings that should appeal to the same audience. I got the impression most visitors weren’t bringing a lot of background knowledge about the organization in anyway. The average attendee could be either a kid with a penchant for screens or the middle-aged visitor with a preference for “trippy art.”
There are standout art pieces accessible to all, like an interactive, 12-foot tall skull covered in sound-reactive 3D projection mapping that welcomes you upon entry, to a 23-foot-high Japanese maple tree with canopy of more than 5,000 twinkling LED lights that you can sip $17 cocktails underneath (get the margarita for a smoky bubble surprise!).
But most attractions hide behind sliding doors, with price tags up to $45 and little explanation about exactly what to expect from those hefty prices. I fumbled with my phone to be able to read descriptions to my parents, for whom technology is a second language, and mostly didn’t understand these offerings in the first place. It was unsatisfying to peer into light-shifting galleries, a few prohibitive clicks away from entry. It would have made a world of difference to have been able to buy a package of attractions that provided us with some education framework to better get excited about these offerings rather than turned off by the prices.
Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart, though, did not disappoint, even with the $45 price tag. There was a seemingly endless attention to detail within a set designed to delight and perplex. The concept follows a plotline involving a family business turned corporate, a modified-til-broken food system, and a crooked system challenged by a troop of guerilla activists. But again there was not enough explanation here to give people who aren’t equipped with the background knowledge about Meow Wolf’s escape-room-meets-edgy-childrens-museum to be able to understand the concept. And the 1.5-hour time slot and very crowded interior didn’t really allow anyone the time and space to look beyond the shiny objects and projection-mapped surfaces to jump into the mystery they were supposed to solve. I loved everything about it, from the quintessential slides and hidden crawl tunnels to the intriguing storyline. But it felt more like a frenzy-for-all than a place to think critically and put the pieces together.
All in all, AREA 15 is a huge step forward for interactive arts and creators everywhere, especially those hailing from the Southwest. The location in Vegas is absolutely perfect for instagram-inclined strip goers to pop over for an experience they won’t forget, and the free access to many installations is a win for the art-curious everywhere. But, there is so much room to grow and improve to make AREA15 truly feel like an experience to challenge attendees to go beyond the perfect photo op and to understand the true challenge to their minds and creative impulses. That’s the point, right? Sometimes it was hard to tell.
Shifting away from the open, yet very commercial, superficial concept and towards something that may cost more up front, but becomes more inclusive and relaxed may allow attendees to become participants, not feel like cash cows.
