New York: Spyscape Museum

They know who I am.... they know where I've been... there's no escape! 

Forget the Met, the MoMa is SO 2012, It’s all about SPYSCAPE in 2018. 

My friends came to the city for a museum experience and I wanted to make sure they were impressed. They’re not tourists, but sometimes as airline crew you feel like a constant tourist in your home base, especially in a city like New York where you can be here for 10 years and still haven’t seen everything. The art museums here are world class and filled with treasures, but sometimes you need a museum to give you a little more than beautiful paintings and ancient mummies. Sometimes you need to dive into a fantasty world with you as the star of your very own spy movie. What is your alias? Where are you going? Who are you fighting for? What are you going to wear?

We chose to wear black. All black. Because this is New York and spies are incognito. We started out the experience stealthy and with the spirit of a true Ninja, including a very official spy hoodie that conceals the identity of the spy in training. We didn’t know when we would be called upon to embark on a covert spy operation and wanted to be extremely prepared. 

Spyscape nestles itself in Midtown, a new museum highlighting the well known and not so well known spies who have altered the course of history from WWII to hackers in our present, big brotherly technology dominated times. It’s definitely my favorite museum and caters to a crowd who is craving that interactive, immersive museum environment that teaches history as well as helps you find your very own path to becoming an agent. 

Enter the experience. Upon arrival, you and your group of spies in training will receive an official bracelet that stores all your digital information gathered along your journey to becoming a spy. The attached barcode activates various portals throughout the museum where you are given the chance to solve tests and challenges that will analyze your best qualities and abilities for future operations. This is important later on for evaluating you strengths and weaknesses to determine your title recommendation when you embark on your new career in the CIA. (Or KGB).

It’s extremely serious.

Come hydrated and wear comfortable shoes. Don’t tell anyone where you’re going. Probably best to avoid social media until the next day, just in case something were to happen. 

The Tests

Your bracelet gives you access to personalized portals throughout the museum that allow you to produce data for the operation to reveal your true path. My suggestion is to take as many of the tests as you can, so that they have enough data to make an accurate assessment of your capabilities and potential. There is first a personality test, with generalized questions involving situations and temperaments. There is a risk test, designed to measure how much of a daredevil you are. Would you be able to climb that building and risk falling ten stories? Or would you be better suited to a nice desk position at the CIA answering phone calls? You are also able to access the brainpower tests, which measures critical thinking, analytical, mathematical, and problem solving skills that you’ll need as a future code breaker, hacker, or general covert operations agent.  

The Challenges  

You are challenged to various physical tests of the body and mind. Break the codes and get an agent to safety, pass a lie detector test, pass through a tunneled room filled with security laser beams criss crossing and zig zagging their way between the walls. You might want to practice your best poker face now, as the lie detector is able to read your facial reactions and gives immediate results on how you react when you lie versus tell the truth. The last challenge involves a surveillance camera scanning test; in the room filled with more than 20 cameras placed in various locations, you are responsible for detecting the targets and suspects in question for the agency. 

The entire museum is filled with information and history on spies in America and abroad, including double agents who were shunned by the FBI in the past. Read about famous operations you’ve never heard of, see actual spy gadgets that were used in the 60’s that harken to a real James Bond novel. Learn about contemporary methods of spying including hacking into internet securities and breaching government websites that is nothing short of terrifying.  The attention to detail in the museum is very thourough and the entire display informative, entertaining, and beautifully designed. 

Anonymous, the ultimate vigilantes of the present and future...   

The museum is constantly growing, and towards the end of this year, 2018, I was told they are expanding their exhibit to include more information and artifacts, and hopefully even more challenges to stimulate the inner spy inside that needs to be nourished. 

My favorite was learning about the histories of those spies who aided in the allies winning WWII, the stories are nothing short of amazing. I would love to come back and browse the rest of the exhibit at a more leisurely pace and soak up more of their fascinating lives. 

the tiniest of tiny devices included a razor compass, a mini telescope, and an escape compass. 

Teeny tiny telescope.  

This camera featured below is the camera used to save us from war with Cuba during the Cuba Missile Crisis in the 60’s. It was the one that photographed the missile sites in Cuba, leading to the ending of the crisis with diplomacy instead of nuclear apocalypse. Phew! 

There is so much spy paraphernalia in this place. I was in such heaven. Here is a code typewriter that was used to make secret messages during the war:  

The Cold War was a pretty chilly time for American diplomacy, but check out all these hot items that spies got to use!  

Fast forward to the 2000’s, and we are in the ever expansive, slightly overwhelming, intensely invasive space of the internet. Nobody is alone anymore. Bwahahha. Here are some surveillance program names that you might be interested in protecting yourself against. Warning : If you’re a conspiracy theories this museum might give you severe anxiety. 

Stuxnet was so interesting to learn about... a weapon made of code? Does this mean we are officially living in the future where anything is possible and nobody is safe? Again, no conspiracy theories need to come here.  

Debriefing. Moment of Truth. 

After breaking the codes, solving the missions and passing the lie detector test, you are now ready to become an official spy and join the rest of the agents to retrieve invaluable information that might help to save the country, stop a war from happening, or capture a terrorist before he attacks.  

At the end of your journey, you’ll be taken to the final room with a proper debriefing. I got chosen to be a Hacker, with my suprerior skills to be Mathematics. Joshua was chosen to be an Agent Handler, while Coco was chosen to be the ultimate Spymaster. 

Enjoy a day in NYC and stop by Spyscape to discover your hidden talents, strengths, and proclivities!  

Soak up that culture and Happy Flying!