NOVA Music Festival Exhibition
Produced by Tribe of Nova Foundation
Experienced in NYC ~ April 2024
The Experience & How it Works:
You walk in, pass through security, see a description of the exhibit on the wall and then pass through a doorway into the experience. It begins with a five minute video in an area that feels like the entrance to the music festival. The second room is an impressionistic recreation of the campground area. Visitors are invited to look around and, unexpectedly, to touch the items and smartphones. While it seemed like this might be the “main room” of the exhibit, it is not. There is another much larger room that follows after it and which has various sections. Right before the exit, there is an additional vestibule that presents additional exhibit materials and an opportunity to contribute to the exhibit.
Why it’s Interesting, IMHO:
It’s an immersive memorial of a terrorist event that happened at a music festival. It is experiential and educational, in addition to being a tribute to the victims of the attack.
Initial Impression & Critical Discussion:
This exhibit is well thought out, intentional and highly effective.
The entrance video does an excellent job of setting the scene, describing the expectations for this music festival and the peace-loving vibes that pervaded it up until tragedy struck. It leaves off with a well-crafted cliffhanger that leads the visitor to be curious to venture further into the exhibit and discover what happened next. The bench opposite the movie screen in the entryway is a little low and close; once seated, the on-screen images meant to be eye level are no longer. For this reason, we noticed visitors sitting an then standing back up again. This by no means impacts the effectiveness of the exhibit, however, it’s worth noting, in case the exhibit travels and is set up again in another city. We certainly hope it is.
The exhibit positions the visitor as someone walking through the festival grounds. Everything we see set up — tents, ear plugs, stuffed animals — was found abandoned at the festival. Then throughout the exhibit, and often where people would be (i.e., in chairs, sleeping bags), tethered cell phones are presented, playing on loop the videos that were taken with phones as the events unfolded on that fateful day.
One side room is labelled as having particularly graphic content so that individuals can decide for themselves whether to enter or pass by. The videos in that room are interviews with individuals who are recounting what they saw.
Later in the exhibit, there are other, larger abandoned items, including a food stand, burnt cars, a bar, beverage refrigerators and the main festival tent and sound system. These are acommpanied by video interviews with survivors of the terrorist attack. As the visitor makes their way through the recreated festival grounds, they are also making their way through time, experiencing events later in the day and, finally, the tragedy’s aftermath. Toward the end, there is a table with glasses and scarves. At first it appeared that these were from some sort of shop at the festival. Only after processing the story presented does it become apparent that these glasses and sunglasses presented in individual plastic bags are eyewear that belonged to festivalgoers that have now been cleaned, cataloged and brought here to help us understand, process and remember the tragedy that occurred.
HOT TIPS:
- Large bags aren’t permitted.
- Liquids aren’t permitted.
- You will need to pass through security.
- Advance ticket purchase is required. All tickets allow the same experience; the different tiers are to allow for different levels of donation.
- Assigned entry times are not strictly observed.
- Allow time. If you watch all the videos and take time to process the information, you could easily spend 2–3 hours in the exhibit.
- Restrooms are available near the exit.
- There are a few interactive activities. Visitors may write a note in the final room of the exhibit. There is also an art station after passing through the exit. A shop is present for visitors to make purchases that support the foundation.
Experiential Viewpoint Expression (E.V.E.):
Embodied, 1st/2nd person visual, 1st person narrative, participant, deity.
Walking through the exhibit, the visitor has embodied first person perspective. The videos playing are often taken in the first person visual perspective, however, on occasion the festival-goer speaks to camera, in which cases it is 2nd person visual and, because most of them are not speaking to a future individual walking through an exhibit, in moments, the embodiment and E.V.E. may change.
Because visitors are encouraged to handle objects and because at the end they are invited to leave a note for future visitors to see, this is a participant experience. Even though visitors do not change the story, they may impact the scene.
The experience is largely mortal when it comes to experiential POV, however, one could argue that you could walk to the end to see and hear stories of the aftermath before hearing stories of the attack. In this way, the visitor is able to “bend” or control time in a way that normal humans outside of a crafted story-experience world cannot.
Story Anchor:
When attack rockets were spotted people in the sky over a music festival in Israel, attendees began to evacuate the premises, seeking safety, and then Hamas terrorists attacked, killing more than 360 people and taking many others hostage.
Pillars of Game
Voluntary Participation — check!
Goal — check! To learn the story of the terrorist attack and to learn about and hear from victims of the attack.
Rules — Make your way through the various rooms. You may handle objects.
Feedback — None.
Conclusion: This experience is not a game.
Who Should Experience This?
This exhibit addresses an important and impactful event. And the immersivity is very affecting. Anyone who doesn’t understand what happened at the Nova Music Festival or why it’s significant should definitely attend. If you know people who fall in that category and need to understand, bring them.
For those who are highly sensitive and/or already deeply affected by the events that unfolded (or similar events, e.g., 9/11), it may be too much. Adults should use their discretion when bringing children. The expereince may not be suitable for some and for others, it may only be appropriate for them to see certain sections of the exhibit.
