* Update 211219: the Wonder Factory is open. Booking
A PRESS RELEASE announcing “the ultimate Instagram experience” and “marshmallow swimming pools, confetti cyclones, mirrors that transport you to outer space!” is not promising.
Loving Dalston usually bins handouts about “ultimate experiences”, let alone intros that end with a ! But in an era of hashtag ads and paid influencers, the puff for the Wonder Factory sounded like fun, especially when you Factory — sorry, factor — in an “indoor beach with sand” (Insta pink, natch), “orchard of [pink — tick] blossom trees”, a 3m wall of LED lamps you can touch to create your own artworks and an “infinite star-field mirror room”.
The large (15 rooms) site is in a newish skyscraper on several bus routes and within walking distance of three Overground stations — even a non-Londoner GenZedder could find their way. (On second thoughts, uhm…)
Mark Johnson, who set up the pop-up and is an IT consultant and entrepreneur from Ilford, NE London, gushes: “The Wonder Factory is an Instagram user’s paradise.” His publicist calls it “London’s most ambitious interactive art exhibition”.
Art, interactive? Oh, no, brings to mind memories of being dragged by parents to austere galleries that try to “get down with the kids”.
Don’t worry: it’s more Insta than artists. So, phones and cameras ready? Entrance costs £9; £7.20 if you use the code DEC20.
David Altheer 141219
* Wonder Factory, Unit B (more stylish inside than that sounds), Dalston Works (ditto), off Dalston Lane, Dalston E8 2FQ, open to 29 Feb 2020, Thurs and Fri, noon-8pm; Sat and Sun, 9am-9pm. Tickets £9; 20% with code DEC20. If you get hungry, vegan bakery Cake or Death is indulgently close at hand, not much further away is Allpress.
* Insta venues further afield: Somerset House ice rink, Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, Christmas at Kew Gardens (most Instagrammed in London) and more, press this link
* If you’re more interactive than Insta, you might like Draughts, the games café in Kingsland High Street not a km away.
* Emboldened underscored words in most cases indicate a hyperlink, a reader service rare among websites. If a link does not work, it is probably because the site to which the URL refers has not been maintained. A link in no way expresses support for any site. Pictures supplied
