We’ve been curious about the Museum of Math since we first heard it was in the works last year and opened Dec 2012, so we had to check it out while in NYC… as designers with a love of math (particularly as it applies to geometry, design, patterns, puzzles, and more), Shawn and I have been excited to see how the MoMath brought these concepts to life with interactive installations for kids! And as most of you know, my rule on NOTCOT has always been to share the things i LOVE that inspire me! But, as much as i hate breaking my own rule… we are SO disappointed! Sadly, the Yelp reviewers are right ~ It has SO much potential, but unfortunately i wouldn’t recommend it… yet? It’s been open nearly 6 months now and the majority of the interactive exhibits in the spacious two levels are either not functioning, impressively unintuitive, or have taken quite the beating and don’t feel like you’re visiting a brand new museum. (But i must say the docent we ran into upstairs was trying his best, and had great enthusiasm and knowledge even when explaining how exhibits would work… were they functioning.) While it does have a 3D printer, laser cutter, badges that are supposed to sync with various exhibits to send you your creations later, an interactive floor, fractal video cameras to interact with, interactive kinect driven projections, and other digital setups, in the end the analog exhibits are more engaging. Ultimately the bike above is probably the most fun of all the working exhibits (but don’t forget to wear closed toe shoes, which i learned the hard way)… but that isn’t worth the price of admission.

All of that being said ~ working or not, i took a bunch of pics for those as curious and excited as we were that haven’t been yet to get a peek inside the MoMath. And i’m not giving up hope on it, i just hoped for so much more? Take a peek on the next page…

Tags: museum - new york - travel