Mile-long queues, tetchy crowds and a to-buy list as long as Santa’s – Christmas shopping season is officially here. But giving us an extra reason to join the Oxford Circus scrum this season is the newly-opened Twist Museum, a multi-sensory illusory experience that offers a dose of escapism from the heaving stores. Located just up from the iconic shopping area, its 60 mind-bending exhibits have been created in collaboration with a range of artists, neuroscientists and philosophers.
Blending immersive attractions with education and technology, the experiences are designed to challenge your perception of what is real and what isn’t – and discover what happens to your brain when it’s deceived. From the Ames Room, which replicates the effect of shrinking, to the Life Without Colour Room, where you can experience a world without our kaleidoscope of shades, Twist’s informative displays help us to understand what’s actually going on in our grey matter in these situations. Posing questions such as ‘Can we see colours that aren’t there?’ and ‘Do we always know which way is up?’, the one-of-a-kind attraction promises to offer a unique insight into how we experience colour, perspective, shape, sound, heat and more. Worth braving the shops IRL for, we reckon. £23.50; 248 Oxford St, London W1C; twistmuseum.com