Inside Mercer Labs, New York’s Immersive Museum of Art and Technology

I’m sitting at a long, low table, colouring intently. Large screens cover the walls around me, giving the room a blueish glow. I’ve been handed a black-and-white outline of a dragon with a crown covering its eyes, and boxes of crayons are spread out in front of me. I carefully colour its head green, its body blue and its scales a riot of rainbow colours — knowing that, in a few minutes, this imaginary creature will come to life.

This is Mercer Labs’ Ecosystem and Drawing Station, one of 15 interconnected rooms that make up New York’s Museum of Art and Technology. When I hand my finished drawing to the attendant to scan, the dragon appears on a circular, portal-like screen in front of me, dancing and waving as though it knows I’m watching. I’ve barely had time to take it in before it disappears, only to reappear on another screen.

“You become part of the artwork,” says Anna Karnowski, Mercer Labs’ VP of Sales, as she leads me through the museum.

The first space, The Map, asks visitors: what would the world’s greatest artists do if they had modern technology? Laser projectors cast famous masterpieces across the walls, ceiling and floor. Ancient Greek marble statues are reimagined with robotic arms; waves flow across the walls and down to the floor; flowers bloom and change colour, moving gracefully across the screens. I sit on a swing hanging from the ceiling and twist back and forth to see the artworks from every angle. Couches are also scattered across the floor, allowing visitors to lie down and look up at the changing shapes.

For travellers looking for a more exclusive way to experience the museum, Mercer Labs also offers private tours before and after public opening hours, as well as the option to book out the space entirely. That means exploring the 36,000sq ft museum without the usual crowds, with the freedom to linger in each room and experience the installations at your own pace.

We later move to the Infinite Room, where LED lights are reflected in surrounding mirrors, creating an endless cascade of colour that moves in time with classical music. In the Engine room, gold, white and blue lights bounce around the surrounding walls. As I wave my arms, flashes of colour react to my movement, swooping back and forth across the screens.

Between each room, I follow Anna through dark corridors, as though I’m backstage at a theatre. “You’re intentionally supposed to get a bit lost,” she says with a smile.

The space encourages visitors to explore all five senses, and I quickly lose track of the fact that I’m in the Financial District. One moment I’m standing beneath a vast digital artwork; the next I’m swinging through a room of shifting light or watching technology respond to my movements. The museum feels less like somewhere I’m being shown art and more like a world I’ve been invited into.

Back at the drawing station, I watch other guests wait excitedly for their personalised characters to appear. I spot my dragon still making its way around the museum, now permanently part of the Mercer Labs ecosystem. Around me, people swing, play with sand and dive into a luminescent ball pit. There’s something wonderfully liberating about being given permission to act like a child again — particularly in the middle of one of Manhattan’s busiest neighbourhoods. And that’s perhaps the magic of Mercer Labs: for an hour or two, I can forget about the city outside and disappear somewhere else entirely.