Feeling Feelings at the Museum of Feelings

Introducing New York City’s newest pop-up, a mini museum that’s in the area for a limited time only, a place where guests get to actually feel feelings.

The Museum of Feelings located at Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey St. in NYC, is a walk through of five rooms guided by scents provided by Glade. Viewers got to refract colorful light on a wall, walk through sparkly green strings hanging off the ceiling, dance while blue animations circle around your feet, control kaleidoscope flowers in a room of mirrors, and stand in an ethereal cloud of electric purple and pink. This pop-up museum was meant to give New Yorkers the chance to explore their emotions in connection to the various fragrances that would activate our sense of smell.

Due to the overwhelming influx of people visitors were shuffled in groups by guides dressed in geometric, structured clothing. They promoted the taking of selfies in each of the galleries, reminding them to add the hashtag museumoffeelings every time.

 

Optimistic: the first room, inspired by Radiant Berries. Viewers were handed a reflective piece of cardboard to fiddle over the glass plate to the left, in return, a variety of different colors would move on the blank wall to the right. The constant shuffling and stopping to wait for other people to take pictures of their friends against the wall made could make one more frustrated and annoyed rather than optimistic.

Joyful: the second room, inspired by Balsam & Fir. Guests put their complementary 3D glasses on and walked in a room with mirrored surfaces for floors and walls (messing with the sense of space) with sparkly, green rubber strings hanging from the ceiling creeping into the back of many winter jackets and taking glasses off an embarrassing amount of times. While aesthetically pleasing, a viewer could, again, feel more annoyed instead of joyful.

Invigorated: the third room, inspired by Blue Odyssey. A halo of colors surrounded everyone’s feet as they danced across the room. Bumping into people as everyone paid more attention to the floor rather than the people around them was not as stressful as it may sound – personal emotions could finally succumb to the museum and actually feel invigorated.

Exhilarated: the fourth room, inspired by Blooming Peony & Cherry. A life-size kaleidoscope in which the floral patterns could be controlled by viewers and a touchscreen. One could definitely feel exhilarated in this room – witnessing the growth of flowers all around guests was enough beauty to make up for the other annoying teenagers in the museum.

Calm: the fifth, and final room, inspired by Lavender & Vanilla. Viewers were coaxed into inhaling questionable chemicals as they walked among the clouds. This was arguably the most Instagrammable part of the museum. The pink light of the room provided the perfect natural filter for artsy photos that museum-goers could then show off on social media. Rebelling against orders, most people sat on the floor, and let the clouds surround them until they felt lightheaded.

Finally, after about 20 minutes of walking through the museum, guests were lead into the museum shop. Glade candles were being sold (naturally) and people took their final selfies with the “MoodLens.” After posing in front of a tall screen, the participant(s) placed their hands on the pad while their “emotions” were read. The given emotions translated into color and it was placed as a filter over a complimentary print.

Overall, it was worth the feeling of knowing that everyone succumbed to the social expectation to visit this pop-up that was essentially created for visitors to buy Glade products.

Unfortunately, The Museum of Feelings was only open to the public for free until December 15th.

– by Annie Lee-Daly ’16