The Museum of Senses opened recently on Jindřišská street, just a short walk from Václavské náměstí (Wenceslas Square) in Prague. The closest tram stop is Jindřišská (Trams 3, 5, 6, 9, 14 and 24 stop there).
The entrance is via the archway, first door is the gift shop and exit.
Entrance for adults is 290 Kč, which is a little expensive, but I’m guessing they are paying quite a lot to rent in such a central location.
There are lockers available, where you can leave coats and bags.
Your journey begins through a small mirror maze – that leads to a room where you can create a multi-coloured shadow on the wall:
The floor of the next room has a photograph taken from the top of a high-rise building. The idea is that you can take a picture that looks like you’re walking a high wire above the buildings. We found it difficult to get a good photo of this and I needed to Photoshop at home to get this image.
Next is a wall of convex Einstein faces. Apparently your mind can trick you that these are concave rather than convex – but they looked convex to us. You’re then in a central room, surrounded by various other rooms and artifacts designed to trick or awaken your senses. There’s also a play area where you can try various puzzles.
A bed of nails, where you can lay down, press a button and nails rise up to form the mattress:
A room where the design makes one person small, the other big:
A ‘head on a plate’ illusion:
A tiny disco, made bigger using mirrors:
An upside down room:
When I first took the picture above, I wasn’t that impressed, until I realised the trick was to rotate the photo 180 degrees.
A bridge runs through a vortex, which spins and makes you feel like the static bridge is rotating – be careful if you suffer from motion sickness. I tried to take a picture but could hardly stand up there.
There’s also another room designed to confuse your senses – I felt queasy as soon as I walked in there.
A large kaleidoscope tube creates some interesting effects:
The staff are really friendly and keen to demonstrate how things work – they will also take pictures for you.
The toilets continue the theme – this is the washbasin:
We enjoyed our visit which lasted about 1.5 hours. You could stay longer if you wanted to complete all the play area puzzles and really focus on the wall pictures depicting various classic optical illusions.
If I could add anything, it would be the installation of cameras in the best positions to capture the illusions, including rotating the upside-down room picture. Maybe a hand-held clicker so you could pose and shoot. Then a console where you could email the pictures to yourself. But that would require some investment in technology to identify each group and present the photo set at a console.
MUZEUM SMYSLŮ
Jindřišská 939/20
110 00 Praha 1-Nové Město
T: 00420 608213749
Adults: 290 Kč
Children (between 5 and 15 years): 170 Kč
Children until 5 years: Free admission
Family: 690 Kč*
* Includes 2 adults with maximum 2 children age 5-15
Monday – Friday
10:00 – 22:00
Saturday – Sunday
09:00 – 22:00
The Prague Review 