Carrying headsets, guests to Rosemont’s EXP will soak up digital actuality displays and extra. The immersive leisure venue is scheduled to open in September.
Courtesy of Edward Marshall
EXP, a 26,000-square-foot immersive leisure vacation spot, will open in Rosemont’s Pearl District on Sept. 25.
Rosemont has partnered with PHI Studio, an immersive design studio primarily based in Montreal, to create the power, which is at the moment underneath development.
When accomplished, the area will host sensory-rich experiences, together with digital actuality, augmented actuality and conventional interactive exhibitions.
“Rosemont is admittedly on the forefront of this wave, and I do consider it’s going to be a wave,” stated Eric Albert, CEO of PHI Studio, throughout a tour of the power Wednesday. “Consider it as cinema 4.0 to a sure extent. It is like watching a film, however you are truly contained in the film, and you’ll work together with a few of the components round you.”
Eric Albert, CEO of PHI Studio, talks about EXP, an immersive leisure venue opening in Rosemont’s Pearl District in September.
Courtesy of Edward Marshall
PHI Studio has produced initiatives in Montreal, Houston, Shanghai and Singapore.
“The Chicago space is understood to be on the forefront of immersive experiences,” Albert stated. “Our goal is to carry some of these experiences to the most important variety of folks attainable all over the world.”
EXP is predicted to carry 1 / 4 million folks a 12 months to Rosemont, Mayor Brad Stephens stated.
“Our daytime inhabitants is 100,000 folks — this may add to that,” he stated. “We’ve got an area and theater and various things within the conference heart, this simply steps exterior that field.”
What’s at the moment an empty room with mild grey partitions will rework right into a welcoming reception space with a merchandise retailer. Albert guided the tour group into a big black field, nonetheless lined with yellow warning tape, which he stated is “the place the magic goes to be taking place.”
“The way in which to think about the area is sort of a clean canvas, and folks might be coming in with their numerous varieties of experiences,” Albert stated.
The brand new immersive area will open with two globally acclaimed 45-minute digital actuality experiences making their Midwest debut: “Horizon of Khufu” and “Life Chronicles.” These experiences permit explorers, geared up with a digital actuality headset, to roam freely inside a bodily walkable digital actuality area.
“Numerous the magic occurs contained in the headset,” Albert stated.
“Horizon of Khufu” will transport vacationers to discover the Nice Pyramid of Giza, the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu. This expedition expertise has bought over 1.5 million tickets worldwide.
In “Life Chronicles,” a digital information will take guests on a journey by way of time, spanning 3.5 billion years. The expedition showcases the most important levels of evolution, historic paleo-landscapes and even dinosaurs.
“Numerous experiences that we’re going to be presenting have an academic part to it,” Albert stated. “The 2 experiences that we’re beginning with had been truly constructed with scientists and historians to guarantee that not solely are they entertaining, however that in addition they signify the truth.”
Later, EXP will welcome “Area Explorers: The Infinite,” a cinematic digital actuality expertise that was filmed contained in the Worldwide Area Station. Contributors will really feel like they’re dwelling among the many astronauts as they witness a spacewalk and gaze down at Earth.
A waitlist for EXP will open July 23, and tickets might be accessible Aug. 4.
“That is the wave of the longer term,” Stephens stated. “Cannot wait to see it open.”