The Deep Lake Future immersive art experience is dystopian, whimsical and fun

Imagine a dystopian future where climate change has caused the Great Lakes to flood and invasive species to take over what used to be land.

Now imagine that that bleak setting also has a touch of otherworldly whimsy.

That's the vibe Milwaukee artist Daniel Murray is going for in Deep Lake Future, an immersive art experience he and 25 colleagues have created in Var Gallery, 700 S. 5th St.

Murray — whose background matches the eclectic feel of his exhibition — grew up in Whitefish Bay, then went to UCLA for college and stayed in Los Angeles to work in film. After a career pivot that included a political theory PhD from Stanford University and serving as executive director of a racial equity and teaching center, he decided to return to his roots, both geographically and career-wise. He moved back to the Milwaukee area and founded FuzzPop Workshop in 2022.

Recently, Murray took me and a Journal Sentinel photographer on a tour of Deep Lake Future. Here's what we learned about the exhibit.

What is Deep Lake Future?

Deep Lake Future is meant to be an imagined, otherworldly, underwater depiction of what the Great Lakes area could look like if invasive species took over the ecosystem. The atmosphere is achieved through sculptures of underwater creatures and features, as well as lighting, video projections and sounds that simulate the movement of water.

Murray and 25 artist colleagues — ranging from a professional theater lights artist to painters who have created many of the murals around the city to art students and professors at Milwaukee's universities — spent about a year and a half conceptualizing and creating the experience.

"We took as a starting point the concept of imagining a flooded future where a climate catastrophe has happened and where people are trying desperate experiments to survive," Murray said.

In the first room of the exhibit, visitors learn that backstory. Then they move to the next, larger room, where they encounter the artwork and have the opportunity to touch the sculptures, crawl through tunnels of lights and even draw on the walls in the final part of the exhibition.

"People feel freaked out in that first room, but then they move on to something that feels more magical with a little whimsy," Murray said. "This is how we created something joyful and imaginative, but not purely superficial because hopefully it will also raise awareness and get people to ask questions about climate change."

What is the fictional story behind the immersive adventure?

The story behind the exhibit is that, in the years after the "Great Floods" and the takeover of invasive species, the fictional organization ICOR (Interspecies Cybernetic Optimization Research) has developed cutting-edge experiments and futuristic-sounding scientific fields — such as cosmological aquanatics, cyberquatic engineering and subliminal biology — to help humans survive in their new environment.

The story is highlighted in the experience's first room when an "expedition leader/janitor" (in our case, Anja Notanja Sieger, a real-life poet and performance artist) talks about ICOR's experiments with artificial intelligence and invasive species neurology. Sieger also told us she's been nurturing her own tank of invasive species with all the usual techniques — like feeding them rotisserie chicken and playing John Denver songs for them to dance to.

Before rather abruptly leaving the room, Sieger cryptically alluded to the unknown whereabouts of the previous "expedition" and told us we would learn more about ICOR's research from a short video before our "decontamination process." At that point, lights started blinking, fog surrounded us and the words, "Join the Aquatic Mind," appeared on the screen.

With that creepy intro, we entered the larger room of the exhibit, where we were free to take our time exploring the whimsical works of art.

What can people do in Deep Lake Future?

The artworks are touchable, discoverable and crawl-through-able in Deep Lake Future. There's an interactive video space that reacts to people's movements (or, if you'd prefer, a "zebra mussel vortex steals your energy" in the artists' words). There are hanging plastic dividers that catch the light as people move them aside to find hidden cubbyholes and tunnels. There's a crawlspace (also known as the "cosmic nerve center," according to Murray) with mirrors and lights to resemble an infinity room. There's a DIY space near the exit illuminated by a black light where people can leave their own mark with Sharpies. And throughout the entire exhibition, there are sculptures of creatures and billowing fabric with subtle lighting to make visitors feel as if they're underwater.

As visitors enter the exhibition, they're given a small paper pamphlet with items to look for in a scavenger-hunt-type activity. When we were there, we were told to look for a bionic beaver, a message in a bottle, 10 eyeballs, six ICOR logos and a swimmer's toes.

Murray said the scavenger hunt has been an effective way to "get people to slow down and notice the art" rather than rush through as they might in a more traditional art gallery that can feel overwhelming to people who aren't used to appreciating art.

"This is the kind of art that we want to be accessible," Murray said. "There's a concept that's the environmental message about ecology and invasive species, or you can just hunt through the experience and search for eyeballs.

"There's also the creative inspiration when you slow down to look at things, like 'Oh, this is fabric and chicken wire; I want to build this in my room!' We want people to have any or all of those experiences."

What's next for FuzzPop Workshop?

FuzzPop Workshop is currently leasing the exhibition space from Var Gallery. Originally, Deep Lake Future was going to run through the end of 2023, but with more than 7,000 people having toured the exhibition so far, the run has been extended through March.

"We weren't sure what the interest would be, but there has been a steady crowd, and we think there's still a huge audience out there," Murray said. "And we see a wide range of visitors too, from families with kids to people on dates who stop by after happy hour to Cub Scouts and art clubs and corporate events."

Murray considers Deep Lake Future to be a prototype for future immersive art experiences. FuzzPop Workshop will be creating another experience at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, with plans to open to the public in August. That exhibition will be an imagined cosmic corn field.

Murray hopes to eventually create a flagship location with 30,000 square feet for multiple immersive exhibits, all in the vein of the deep lake and the cosmic corn field — "things that could be ecological or industrial, just environments that we recognize in real life but are reimagined to be otherworldly."

In the meantime, Deep Lake Future will be closed for the first part of January, with plans to reopen Jan. 11 after some upgrades have been made.

"Everyone should come out to see it, even if you saw it before January, because when it reopens, it will be bigger, wilder and weirder," Murray said.

If you go

Where: Var Gallery, 700 S. 5th St., Milwaukee

When: 4-8 p.m. Thursday, 12-8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 12-5 p.m. Sunday,; Jan. 11 through March

Cost: $15 for adults (age 14 and older); $12 for students, children ages 3-13 and seniors (age 65 and older); free for children 2 and younger

Tickets are available online (fuzzpopworkshop.com/tickets) and at the door. This is a timed-entry experience; guests are asked to arrive 15 minutes before their time slot and are free to explore at their own pace after entry. Guests can generally get through the experience in 30 to 60 minutes.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Deep Lake Future in Milwaukee is a whimsical immersive art experience