Responses by James Longmire, Story Development Director
Transport yourself to a fantastical realm of worlds that combines fantasy, exploration, and storytelling. Meow Wolf is revitalizing the concept of immersive and interactive experiences by providing attendees with a mind bending exhibition that opens up the portal of imagination. Take a stroll through the macrocosmic adventure of “House of Eternal Return” in Santa Fe or cash in your Vegas earnings for a ticket to a supermarket with a surreal world at Omega Mart.
These interactive and interconnected multiverse experiences are unlike any other and were co-founded by Sean Di Ianni, Matt King, Corvas Brinkerhoff, Emily Montoya, Caity Kennedy, Benji Geary, and Vince Kadlubek. Meow Wolf represents more than just an instagrammable moment, they strive to support social change and collaborate with artists all over the world to create new projects. As they are creating permanent and temporary exhibitions around the world, they’re using QR Codes to help attendees connect with the storytelling of each installation.
Bitly was excited to chat with Meow Wolf Story Development Director James Longmire and their Marketing team to learn more about this amazing business and how our QR Codes help to enhance the customer experience.
Tell us a little bit about MeowWolf
Meow Wolf creates massive immersive experiences and started off as a small arts collective in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Our first permanent experience was opened in 2016 and we called it the “House of Eternal Return”. Prior to that opening we had created immersive experiences for a limited time before moving to a permanent one which later led to our second experience, “Omega Mart”. This was ideated in 2009 when Meow Wolf first was started as an art collective and it was a way to put on a fake grocery store concept. In 2012 we rented out a space in Santa Fe and created a press release marketing the installation and people showed up with bags thinking they were shopping at a real store.
The second Omega Mart experience opened was a partnership with the Chimera Institute where the students created some of the products. In 2021 we opened up a permanent place in Las Vegas. Our third permanent exhibition, “Convergence Station” is in Denver, Colorado and is our largest experience to date themed around an interdimensional transit station where you can be transported to four different worlds and it’s run by a company called QDot. We’re the first immersive experience company that combines art, narrative, and story that is interwoven into the experience for our customers.
What are some memorable moments for Meow Wolf?
We’re often found by people like Megan Thee Stallion and Dua Lipa who went to our Denver exhibition. During Easter Sunday we had the team behind Myth Busters come to visit and share their experiences about products they purchased in our Santa Fe store. One of the most notable attributes of Meow Wolf is that author George R.R. Martin helped to get our first permanent in Santa Fe started because he has a professional relationship with our co-founder Vince Kadlubek.
What Bitly products are you using and how are you using them?
First, some context…
Meow Wolf, the US-based arts and entertainment company, opened a mysterious pop-up immersive experience at SXSW 2022, creatively directed by Sandra Wang and produced by Jax Delaney. Partnering with Spatial, an audio simulation platform, Meow Wolf took travelers on a mind-opening exploration of the creative process.
Travelers were invited to voyage deep into a mysterious place called the Stream: a psychic channel between worlds where lost ideas resonate off one another, coalesce, and bloom into islands of manifested possibility. Each of these islands held a unique sci-fi story exploring the creative process.
Each of these stories were accessed via Bitly QR codes that were artistically integrated into the island itself.
As guests marveled at the detailed miniature worlds before them, they would uncover these cleverly hidden Bitly QR codes. Simply scanning the QR codes would lead Travelers to a website unlocking the stories of these islands through an array of “Psychic Artifacts”: a “Zoning Manual” for an absurdist city governed by “art laws”; a playful “Coming of Orb Tale” exploring the importance of individual expression within an aesthetic utopia; a “Trash Consumption Log” for a recycling bot on the verge of an artistic existential awakening; and an “SOS Message from an infamous Meow Wolf character” marooned in the wilds of an unknown realm. All the 14 QR code images linking to psychic artifacts can be found on Reddit, or [SPOILER WARNING] can also be unlocked in one click with this secret link.
Travelers had a lot of fun engaging with the islands, and uncovering their stories. Over 12,000 Psychic Artifacts were unlocked during the four day activation.
This journey into the Stream was an inspiring trip into the collaborative subconscious of Meow Wolf’s artists, and Bitly QR codes allowed travelers a quick and fun way of diving deep into our storyworld.
Are the products solving the challenges you hoped they would?
At any of our Meow Wolf exhibits or activations – everything is interactive – and we pride ourselves on using any method of interaction that lights up our own imaginations.
For this SXSW activation – we had a very tight timeline from concept to delivery, so some of our more complex methods of narrative interactivity just weren’t feasible. Using our slick website (designed by Lead Visual Designer, Marley Prudeaux, and built by Geet Jacobs, Senior Director, Digital Ops) Bitly QR codes as a delivery mechanism for accessing the story of the islands, allowed us to ensure that every piece of artwork in the show had a rich and accessible story artifact, all within a super tight timeline.
People are also super familiar with QR codes! Which ensured an easy learning curve for Travelers eager to interact with the story, within this mind-bending experience.
Are there benefits to using Bitly products together (e.g. branded links & QR codes)?
Yes! For us the ability to brand urls and populate QR codes within one enterprise solution was invaluable – especially with our tight timeline.
Bitly’s streamlined products allowed us to build the website, write content, design organic QR borders, and fabricate physical QR codes all at the same time – and easily – within a lightning quick delivery window. Most of the physical QR codes were populated, designed, fabricated, QC’ed and integrated – within a two week timeframe.
What would you tell a friend or colleague who is looking into using Bitly?
For creators and users alike: using Bitly QR Codes is so dang easy! When simplicity and timing are paramount, Bitly is a great tool in an artist’s kit.
If you’re visiting Denver, Santa Fe or Las Vegas soon…you definitely want to plan to visit one of these amazing installations. Are you ready to add Bitly QR Codes to your tool kit? Click here to learn more.