Can you picture this? Step inside the world of Prince
Prince: The Immersive Experience has landed, with interactive experiences, unseen memorabilia and more on show in downtown Chicago. Created by experience company Superfly in partnership with the Prince Estate, Prince: The Immersive Experience is an interactive trip through the music and life of the visionary artist, which lets you explore Prince’s universe in a more interactive way.
“Some years back Superfly set up a department focusing on creating music experiences,” says Maura Gaudio, the company’s Senior Director and Producer. “Prince is our first to come to market, and the dream of one of Superfly’s founders, Kerry Black, who reached out and worked with the estate to bring it to life.”
Gaudio collaborated with creative directors, fashion designers, researchers and authenticators who worked closely with Prince throughout his career, working over two and a half years to bring together what she calls “an unforgettable, unique experience.”
Through multi-sensory spaces – each one different from the last – visitors travel Prince’s life, catalogue of hits and creative evolution, enter inside the Purple Rain album cover, head to Prince’s beloved Paisley Park Studio A to mix one of Prince’s greatest hits, and get down like it’s 1999 in an audio-visual dance party, designed by Prince’s lighting designer, Roy Bennett. The experience also features historic wardrobe pieces, photography and instruments.
MAG_BTM spoke to Gaudio to find out more about their project.
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The Experience is in Chicago. Was that an important place for Prince?
Prince is so steadfast in the mid-West. Minneapolis has Paisley Park, Prince’s home, and being right next door in Chicago was a real impetus for launching the experience, we wanted it to be in a place he was proud of.
How does it differ from Paisley Park?
What makes this experience unique is that it allows fans to really immerse themselves – it’s about a tangible ‘experience’ rather than a more traditional museum experience, which I think is a core distinction between the two, although they both come together when you’re talking about the breadth of Prince’s career and his impact on music and artistry generally.
The Experience is housed in a 30,000 square foot building with the first floor designated to public retail. It’s an amazing component, with different kinds of reinvented merchandise that you might have seen in historical photos, which have been lifted and made contemporary. We’ve worked with some incredible designers; the original 3D girl glasses which Prince infamously wore for his album cover were designed by Coco and Breezy. They’ve reissued them and the first run sold out in a day. Next up we’ve got a collaboration coming out with Jeff Hamilton who will be designing a jacket which is exciting too.
Prince_ The Immersive Experience Merchandise. Photo credit Superfly and Alive Coverage
How is it interactive? Is it like the Friends Experience which you put on in NYC?
Some of the spaces are similar in that they are set style re-creations. There’s an introductory docu-style testament to Prince taking you through what you’re going to see over the next few rooms, which leads to a set re-creation of the video shoot for When Doves Cry, where visitors can interact with the tub as well as pretty iconic scenery from that music video.
After that you reach a few spaces that cover the more biographical origin story of Prince before entering an actual replica of his studio where you get to interact with the isolated stems taken from the original multi-track for Let’s Go Crazy . As a music fan myself, I found it a truly emotional experience hearing all these different parts that make up the song.
Later, there’s also an area called Diamond and Pearls, which is like a shrine slash set re-creation, with elements pulled from different music videos like The Organ Grinder , Gett Off and Insatiable ; people are loving interacting with those elements – it’s very sensual.
Mix the Stems of a Prince Hit in Prince’s Recording Studio. Photo credit Superfly and Alive Coverage
Are there any exclusive items on show?
Many of the photos have never been shared before with the public. We collaborated with photographer Randee St Nicholas who was with Prince for a lot of his career and instrumental in his creative direction. Randee’s a hugely iconic and prolific photographer, and she curated this section, bringing it to life in a way that felt authentic and befitted someone she was so involved with.
Photo by Steven Parke
Who decided on which stage outfits to include? There must have been hundreds to choose from!
I think one of the most eye-opening things I learned during this process was that at Paisley Park, Prince had essentially his own ‘fashion house’. He had tailors, designers and so many different people working there pumping out shoes and outfits and tweaking them along the way – I don’t know if we see that in any living artist.
We worked closely with the estate to curate three different outfits from different time periods to show the evolution of Prince’s iconic fashion. In terms of the physical artifacts, the Estate helped curate pieces they felt would be most powerful in this space; we have a Purple Rain tour outfit, and another which has beautiful sign language on the front, as well as a replica made by the original designers which is very special.
Photo credit Superfly and Alive Coverage
Could you have done it without the artifacts? Also why do you think Prince collected everything?
I think without the artifacts you’d really be missing something. For fans and for me personally, real artifacts from their collections connect you so physically to an artist – when you see the Prince symbol on the tiny little stirrup of his shoe, it’s these details that are key to the experience.
I think he kept everything because it’s beautiful. Every single one of his outfits he wore are so distinguishable and intricate, a piece of art. This is what he wore day in and day out, not just for show. Prince is an artist in every way; he is transcendent and had such a hand in everything he did, you can see his impact in everything he touched.
How was the music curated for the Experience?
It was important for us to take a deep dive into all of Prince’s music, not just the hits, including vault tracks and deep cuts that maybe the casual listener of Prince hasn’t heard. There’s so much music that we have only just scratched the surface…there’s 39 albums, and that’s just a loosely factual number because there’s so much more in Prince’s estate vault.
We’ve partnered with Bose, curating and building the sound design, making the space articulated so that as well as being immersive it’s also wonderful from a sound design experience. There’s a highly interactive space called the Listening Experiences, which provides the visitor with a ‘takeaway’ from the show by going through a series of questions that help identify what type of ‘Prince listener’ you are. At the end it kicks you out a playlist, all from deep cuts and vaulted tracks that you can download using your own QR code: whether you’re an ultimate fan or new listener of Prince there’s something for everyone.
What’s interesting is we’re seeing all generations coming through the doors. It’s a huge opportunity for people who maybe didn’t get to interact or listen to Prince when he was alive – creating that connection for younger generations has been a huge impetus for us in this project.
Photo by Brian Ach
I know museums sometimes have a hard time paying for the licenses for music exhibitions. How did you manage to get the licenses for the Experience?
Retaining all the licenses has been a huge component of this project because at the end of the day, this is Prince’s art and it’s not free. Particularly with the digitisation of music, many consumers have come to believe music is free and so what’s so important when you’re working with an artist who’s so committed in artists rights is that you pay all the artists for their art. We worked closely with UMPG on the publishing and Warner and Sony on the label side to execute the licenses and bring this project to life; they’ve been very invested in seeing this project through and bringing this iconic artist to the world.
What’s your favorite part of the Experience….. and finally is it going to tour?
It changes, but right now I really love the studio. I’ve never been in a position to produce a song, nor have I ever really gotten to listen to isolated stems from someone of this caliber. To step foot in what is basically a studio and then hear Prince’s vocals, I found it really emotional.
I don’t know where we’re going next. but we have a lot of fans asking for us to come to a lot of places, so watch this space!
Get down with a live DJ in Glam Slam powered by Bose. Photo by Superfly & Alive Coverage
Prince: The Immersive Experience runs until the 9th of October, located at The Shops at North Bridge on Magnificent Mile (540 N Michigan Ave), Chicago. For tickets go here.
