Victoria’s Alternative Attractions - Monkey C Interactive’s Artcade
For the longest time, I have wanted to write about alternative attractions or secondary sights in Victoria. To me, it is a sign of a city’s cultural maturity when it not only has a solid list of big attractions, but also an impressive list of secondary places to visit too. If you think of some of the other world cities like Paris or New York, you have your MoMAs or your Louvres, but you also have the Tenement Museum or the Museum of Sewers. In Victoria, we have a growing list of excellent alternative attractions and I will be doing some deep dives into a few of them over the next many weeks. This first article looks at Monkey C Interactive’s Artcade on Fort Street, which really didn’t even open that long ago.
For the longest time, maybe as long as I have lived in Victoria, the shop at this spot was the Old ’N’ Gold Shop. It was essentially a place where you could buy some jewelry, but I think more often than not, you would sell some old jewelry there. When it moved into another location on Fort Street, I immediately saw work happening here. I did wonder what sort of place would move in. I don’t think I could have ever have guessed it would be something like the Monkey C Interactive Artcade which opened in the early part of the summer of this year.
Now, I was not completely unaware of Monkey C Interactive. They are a quite well known art organization headed up by Scott Amos and David Parfit. I had become aware of their work from one of my favourite non-working pieces of art, Musical Railings in Bastion Square (more on this piece later). I also knew that they had worked with Phillips on their very well known steampunk beer trailer that you see at their various festivals in the summer. That said, I’ll admit that I was unaware of some of their other large installation pieces until I was on their website. Some of them are truly amazing and make me want to see them up-close, especially after my visit to the Artcade.
I kept meaning to go to the Artcade through the summer, but it wasn’t until just this last weekend that I finally had the time to go. My five year old son was the perfect companion for the Artcade as it turned out as well. When you go in you are greeted at the door and given a pin to aid in the ‘decontamination’ and then you have to set-up the chamber with lights and music. If you are completely confused by what I am saying, it is because you really need to go in to get the real experience. Not only did my son enjoy setting up the decontamination chamber, but so did I. After you pass through the chamber you are greeted by one interactive installation after another. Some of them let you control a beat or a light or let you create a cacophony of different noises. The whole place adds up to a magical experience. Again, I could try and convey the way each piece felt but I would only be providing you with how it felt for me to use it. I will say that there is an aura of steampunk to a lot of it but it is also not completely that way. The main thing is that the Artcade envelops your touch, sight and hearing completely and because of that you kind of forget that you are in a retail space off of Fort Street.
As you leave you can select your payment for the experience on a sliding scale which is really cool. In talking to the staff person that was working that day, I did mention the Musical Railings installation in Bastion Square and they said that they hope that it will be up and running soon which is exciting!
If you have been to the Artcade, let me know in the comments what you thought about it. Also, as I am planning to expand on this subject with many more Alternative Attractions, if there is one that you think I need to include, please let me know.