I think about the spoon scene in The Matrix a lot. As Keanu Reeves’ Neo contemplates the silver utensil in his hand, a young and mysterious child insists that Neo isn’t, in fact, holding anything at all: “There is no spoon.” And with that, we’re urged to leave our logic at the door.
That, in a nutshell, is what entering the new Paradox Museum feels like.
The 11,000-square-foot attraction, opened in July on the upper floor of the Strip’s Showcase Mall, is labyrinthine in nature, as complex and winding as the human mind. A series of more than 80 optical illusions and exhibits will enlighten and elude you. Patterns, shapes and colors are designed to trick the brain, while more interactive displays, such as Paradox’s spinning carousel of changing objects, outright test the confines of reality. (There is no horse.)
“I think people come in expecting it to be more like a selfie museum, and we’re so much more than that,” says Billy Pierro, sales and marketing manager. “It’s a workout for everybody’s mind by the time that they’re done.”
With the help of a little science, a little engineering and a whole lot of technical magic, Paradox Museum thrives as something Pierro affectionately calls “edutainment.” Every illusion and paradoxical exhibit comes with a placard beside it, explaining what you’re looking at and why you’re perceiving it the way you do.
There are entire sections devoted to holography and infinity mirrors, a spinning tunnel vortex, a poker room full of your clones, a sofa that makes your legs disappear and gravity-defying photo ops that give you the illusion of floating.
It’s worth it to bring a camera buddy along to help you capture all these feats, but some exhibits are so puzzling, strangers have teamed up to learn.
“More than ever, we need to bring people together, and I think that’s really what our museum does,” Pierro says. “It brings you back to your childhood. I always joke and say, ‘If you liked Highlights magazine, or the Magic Eye [books], you’re gonna love all this stuff.”
Pierro says Paradox Museum worked with a group of Croatian researchers to design these visual brain-twisters, and the museum opens its space up for private events and school field trips to educate aspiring young scientists.
Las Vegas is only the third museum in the country—the other two are in Miami and New Jersey—but Pierro says it was an important place to plant a flag. “Because now you’re playing with the big dogs,” he says. “Once you go to Vegas … you’re really on a different level.”
Learning is probably the last thing you’re expected to do on the Strip. But this unprecedented museum makes every moment of it feel like a blast.
PARADOX MUSEUM 3767 Las Vegas Blvd. S. #200, 702-998-7106, paradoxmuseumlasvegas.com. Daily, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
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