Mind-bending optical illusions at new London museum

Category: (Self-Study) Human Interest

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A new museum has opened in London promising visitors one of the best selfie experiences in the capital.

The Paradox Museum specializes in special effects and mind-boggling optical illusions, and visitors are actively encouraged to snap away to their hearts’ content. It is the brainchild of co-founder Miltos Kambourides, a Cypriot entrepreneur with a background in luxury resorts.

He wanted to create a museum that could combine science with a true entertainment experience—and generate a lot of images on Instagram and other social media apps. 

He says, “Every exhibit was designed with the photo in mind. People leave this place taking with them the memories through their smartphones. So, for the entertainment industry, this is so important. The old-style museum is boring. The new-style museum is the one that you can communicate easily to your friends and family, and go back and remind yourself by seeing your photos in your phone.”

With 50 exhibits across 25 rooms, there are plenty of opportunities to grab selfies to impress your friends. The emphasis is clearly on fun rather than information, but the Paradox Museum tries to cater to those who want to better understand the science behind the optical illusions. Each exhibit has a QR code which can be scanned, revealing the science behind the smoke and mirrors.

Kambourides says, “Every exhibit is a product of years of research and development that was done prior to COVID and during COVID.”

If you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to be upside down in a London Tube station, then the museum has the answer. The Paradox Underground station looks like a normal Tube station if it were flipped 180 degrees. Visitors can pose on the set, snap their shots and then flip the image on their phones for a topsy-turvy effect.

The museum is situated in Knightsbridge, right across from the world-famous Harrods department store.

There is already a chain of Paradox museums in other cities across the world, including Paris, Miami, Stockholm, Berlin, Barcelona, Las Vegas, and Shanghai. London is the 12th site, with more planned.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

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[Man and woman posing in optical illusion room and switching places]

[Woman sticking her head through an optical illusion table]

[Miltos Kambourides, co-founder, Paradox Museum, posing in photo frame as a woman photographs a man on a joke sofa]

Miltos Kambourides (interview): “Every exhibit was designed with the photo in mind. People leave this place taking with them the memories through their smartphones. So for the entertainment industry, this is so important. The old style museum is boring. The new style museum is the one that you can communicate easily to your friends and family, and go back and remind yourself by seeing your photos in your phone.”

[Woman taking selfies with blue, red, and yellow shadows]

[Red, green, and blue lights creating the effect]

[Butterfly swinging light illusion]

Miltos Kambourides (interview): “Well, this museum is designed for all kinds of audiences. For the audience that just wants to have fun and take pictures. Or the audience that wants to dig in deeply into the science behind the paradox. So you have QR codes that explain the science behind that. And every exhibit is a product of years of research and development that was done prior to Covid and during Covid.”

[Matt Whiteley entering the upside-down Paradox Underground Station]

[Matt Whiteley sitting on the train time display board]

[Matt Whiteley looking at the London Tube map]

Matt Whiteley (interview): “So this is the Paradox Museum London Tube station. It is an upside-down Tube station. So you can take some incredible photographs in here, have an absolutely awesome time, you can stand on top of the Tube station, underneath the Tube train and just completely defy gravity and wow all your friends.”

[People wearing camouflage clothing and blending into the wall]

[Infinity light display]

Matt Whiteley (interview): “Every experience that we do nowadays, we want to remember. We want to share it with all of our friends. And this is the perfect place to do this. We’ve got so many spaces, so many exhibits, so much fun that you can have, and some great photo opportunities, like this one right here. We’re just going to turn the picture upside down and suddenly you’ve got something awesome to share.”

[Paradox Museum guide walking around the mirror maze]

Matt Whiteley (interview): “Oh it’s huge (sharing photos from holiday on social media). I think it’s massive for absolutely everybody. We all have friends, we all know people all over the world. We can’t send individual photographs to everyone, so we use social media. And having a space like this where we can take some really fun photographs, create some really unique experiences and share them with our friends is just absolutely brilliant.”

[Man interacting with video/mirror illusion]

[Wheels turning on Bell’s Filter paradox display]

[Wall display optical illusion]

[Schrödinger’s cat display with the white cat turning black]

[NO transforming to YES as you move past the display]

[Sign reading: “Paradox Museum”]

This script was provided by The Associated Press.