Miami Sweet

 

November 23, 2021

Miami Sweet

There was a second immersive fantasyland at the Aventura Mall at the same time as the Floral Escape and while I was a little disheartened by that experience, this one more than made up for it. Created by a company called Candy Kingdom, the Miami Sweet immersive experience is a sensory overload and is totally worth the price of admission. It is a sugary sweet explosion that is really interesting and enjoyable as well as incredibly creative, colorful and cool.

Located upstairs next to the mall’s food court, the experience is much, much larger and more expansive than the Floral Escape. It features twelve large rooms each with a candy-themed adventure that also is pure Miami. 

Tropical music accompanying a colorful confetti dance party welcomes guests as they are led through the candy-coated, art-filled adventure. Visitors can surf the waves with candy dolphins in the ‘Life’s a Beach’ room, swung on licorice vines through the jungle in ‘Zoo Tropical,’ travel through a South Beach, Versace-themed candy pop-art gallery, and sway with samba dancers in the ‘Candy Carnival’ room.

Each room is more spectacular than the last and honestly, I thought that first room you entered was the extent of the experience and I was mostly ok with that, before being led deeper and deeper into room after room filled with cool options.

The first room features large creations made totally from various candies. These are large sculptures that feature literally thousands of individual pieces of candy. Small signs indicate how much candy was used and how many man-hours (often over one hundred) it took to create each piece. They are works of art, strange and wonderful art, but art, nonetheless.

Each room features its own mini-theme, most of them Miami-centric such as a fabulous beach room, a party room complete with a DJ and confetti cannons that fill the air with tiny colorful confetti, an art gallery in the style of the Versace mansion that features iconic works of art recreated using only candy of course and a jungle room with large animals created entirely out of candy.

Meant to be interactive as well as immersive, there is a room featuring a large pool of soft plushy squares that guests are encouraged to literally jump into much as a child would leap around in a pit filled with plastic balls.

Honestly going through the exhibit brought back flashes of what it might be like to visit the famous chocolate room at Willy Wonka’s candy factory. It is a fun, vibrant and colorful journey and I just had a fantastic time. As a photographer there was so much cool content and I have to compliment the staff, mostly young kids who really got into it, appearing in each room and interacting with the visitors in such a way that seemed authentic and enjoyable to them, they really added to the overall experience and seemed to be having as much or more fun than the guests.

https://www.miamisweet.com/

The Floral Escape

November 23, 2021

The Floral Escape

Immersive experiences seem to be all the rage these days, whether they are the art-based experiences like the Van Gogh Exhibit or immersive theater or art experiences like Meow Wolf, they are sprouting up seemingly everywhere and are the en vogue thing to do in many places. There is an ongoing and sometimes intense argument about whether these experiences qualify as art in and of themselves or are purely entertainment.

Personally, I think they are a bit of both, of course they are not a traditional art experience, not a museum or gallery and they certainly are entertaining, but at the same time they seem to me artistic endeavors in and of themselves. 

Immersive experiences attempt to engage all five senses in unique physical spaces. New creative canvases are emerging that integrate storytelling, technology, art, and audience participation. It’s an evolving category that began primarily in the art and themed entertainment worlds but has since transformed into its own entertainment phenomenon.

There are a number of these experiences popping up in Florida and Miami has had their fair share and having the time and opportunity, I have tried giving as many as possible a try. I realize that it is something of bandwagon jumping, but I always like to try as many new and interesting experiences as possible.

There just happened to be a pair of such experiences at the Aventura Mall in Miami and I wanted to take the opportunity to experience them for myself. The first was called The Floral Escape which is a series of fourteen floral activation scenes to be experienced by families, friends, and visitors to capture memorable moments immersed in larger-than-life florals. Step by step, color by color, the essence of the various seasons emerges as you stroll through a blooming walkway, posing for photos along the way.

After the morning at the Miami Zoo, I drove up to the Aventura Mall to check out the Floral Escape. It was much smaller than I imagined and obviously designed for the selfie crowd who would use the various scenes to take photos for any number of reasons, from holiday cards to profile photos and other self-absorbed reasons.

In spite, of the obvious commercial aspect and the fact that it really wasn’t all that immersive, it still had its charms. The beautifully designed various scenes were pretty cool and really interesting for the photographer side of my personality. 

It wasn’t worth the price of admission and overall it was something of a disappointment, but I was able to get some decent and interesting photos of the experience. I was hopeful that the second immersive experience, Miami Sweet would be somewhat more interesting.

https://www.thefloralescape.com/