‘It’s made up of a lot of really cool, new technology that’s not really been seen before. It’s really interactive and very fun’
One of the first things we’re told when we step inside a museum or art gallery is to look but not touch – yet a new immersive experience is actively encouraging everyone to touch and mess around.
Taking over Depot Mayfield for three months this summer will be Manchester’s ‘first fully immersive digital playground’ in the form of Supermassive. Described as an ‘indoor, open-world adventure’, the experience will feature interactive tech and games, multi-sensory art, musical environments and responsive AI characters.
Led by a group of artists and designers using 90% of reclaimed materials, the ‘part game, part gallery, part fever dream’ opens from June 13 and aims to spark the imagination in both children and adults with creative play elements like neon sandpits, unique puzzles, strange inventions and ball pits ‘with a twist’.
“It’s just going to be very different from anything else, it’s actually quite hard to explain really,” Ben Kercher, co-founder of Supermassive, tells the Manchester Evening News.
“We wanted to come up with something that was more inspirational rather than educational. It’s very cool, it’s really artistic. Our main goal here is to just make it really, really fun and have something that is really entertaining to anybody who comes in.”
Amongst the experience will be the chance to be roasted by an AI chatbot mouse and the ability to play the piano alongside some reactive balls, alongside the opportunity to explore project-mapping puzzles and kinetic sculptures.
Led by festival creatives who have worked at the likes of Bluedot and Boomtown over the years, the unique experience has been more than two years in the making with the Supermassive team quietly taking over residency in the old Argos unit in Salford Shopping Centre to develop and refine their DIY-style installations through test sessions.
“We all come from the festival scene and for the last ten years, we’ve been doing interactive light art and sound art installations at lots of events across the country,” Ben explained. “We basically just realised we could make it into this whole immersive experience with lots of interactivity to it.
“It’s made up of a lot of really cool, new technology that’s not really been seen before. It’s really interactive and very fun.”
The city centre experience will also feature a light-art café and bar on the rooftop of Depot Mayfield, which will include a stunning centrepiece in the form of a music-reactive water fountain.
“We’re making the whole rooftop like a lighthouse café,” Ben says. “We’re building this huge lighthouse with seating areas in caves which are then all situated around this kinetic water sculpture that reacts to live music.
“The higher the volume of music that is being played, the higher the water will spout up. There will also be lights that reflect the bass and things like that to just bounce off the sound of music. We’re very excited about that.”
With tickets costing an average of £16 for adults and £11 for children, the team behind Supermassive have also tried to make it as accessible as possible for families.
Ben explained: “It’s very important to us that this allows more people to be inspired and given a chance to interact with light art. It’s one of our biggest mantras and why we did this in the first place, so to be able to try and get as many people to visit it as possible is a big deal.”
Tickets for Supermassive can be bought online here, with dates available between June 13 and September 13. Supermassive will be at Depot Mayfield, 11 Baring Street, Manchester, M1 2PY.
