{"id":161476,"date":"2026-08-13T03:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T00:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/?p=161476"},"modified":"2026-08-10T22:51:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T19:51:42","slug":"am-i-seeing-things-or-has-my-picture-been-photoshopped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/am-i-seeing-things-or-has-my-picture-been-photoshopped\/","title":{"rendered":"Am I Seeing Things, or Has My Picture Been Photoshopped?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The visual world around us is constantly changing. Watching the social media habits of my friends\u2019 children and my own offspring, who are already adults, you notice that a corner of the sofa at home is no longer always enough for making TikTok videos and Instagram selfies. There is a need to find something striking in the background, something that would create a wow effect when it spreads through a young person\u2019s social circle.<\/p>\n

Two new experience centres focusing on visuality, illusions, and taking spectacular selfie photos and videos opened their doors in Tallinn\u2019s Old Town around the turn of the year. Both also call themselves museums. We visited them and conducted an experiment to see whether, as the song goes, even an old person might dare to become young again and play like a child. At least the information we had read online encouraged us to give it a try.<\/p>\n

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Is MOF a good museum? \u201cNo, kind of six-seven…\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Museum of Fun\u2014MoF<\/h2>\n

Translated directly as the \u201cMuseum of Fun\u201d, it advertises itself as Estonia\u2019s first selfie museum. The place can be found on the third floor of a new shopping centre near the flower sellers on Viru Street. The lift is accessed through a clothing shop.<\/p>\n

Weekend admission costs \u20ac15 for adults and \u20ac12 for those aged 5\u201318 and for students. The young man who sold us the tickets advised us to leave our outerwear and belongings in the lockers. The advice was good, since constantly putting a shoulder bag or shopping bag, umbrella, and everything else unnecessary out of the way and then picking it all up again is frustrating when you should be concentrating on taking photos.<\/p>\n

But what is there to photograph? The museum has a little more than a dozen brightly coloured themed rooms and corners, albeit equipped with rather minimal props. They are intended as backdrops for expressive, humorous, or simply cool-looking poses.<\/p>\n

Upon entering the space, one of the basic rules of selfie photography became apparent: your personality and extroversion have to be put fully into play. It also felt as though the colourful environment demanded something equally flamboyant from clothing and accessories for the end result to be cheerfully lively or \u201cnaturally crazy\u201d. This theme is unlikely to be a problem for families with children or teenagers.<\/p>\n

As I pondered this, some kind of midlife creative block slammed into place inside me. Facial expressions or instructions to \u201cjust relax and be yourself\u201d were of no help. I became unnecessarily critical of the themed rooms: \u201cWhy is the rotary phone table bolted to the floor so far away from the sofa? It won\u2019t fit in the picture if I try to lounge here like a teenager. That\u2019s what we used to do when we chatted endlessly on the phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then my eyes caught sight of the ball pit. There, my inner child was finally unleashed, and a genuine smile appeared on my face. The \u201csix-seven\u201d corner, already familiar from the internet, didn\u2019t make this middle-aged uncle feel awkward either, but instead inspired me to pose and joke around.<\/p>\n

Watching out of the corner of my eye as two mothers and their preschool-aged children visited the museum at the same time, I realised that the Museum of Fun is a refreshing and unusual place precisely for them. Judging from the dozens of clicks from phone cameras, the customers belonging to the right target group were getting every bit of enjoyment out of their visit.<\/p>\n

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The RGB light room at MoI taught us how to add colour to life!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Museum of Illusions\u2014MoI<\/h2>\n

The day\u2019s second destination, the Museum of Illusions, is located on Rataskaevu Street in the labyrinthine but almost fully accessible renovated premises of the former Von Krahl theatre and music bar. Upon entering, we felt that we had arrived at a museum, albeit in a good, interactive way that positively took the customer experience into account.<\/p>\n

In addition to the \u20ac15 ticket, we bought access to an immersive VR experience called \u201cThe Trail of Angels\u201d. Sitting comfortably in an armchair and wearing VR headsets, you dive into the ethereal works of Lithuanian painter and composer Mikalojus \u010ciurlionis<\/b>. His meditative music plays in the background. The calm experience, lasting just over 20 minutes and covering more than fifty paintings, was definitely worth the additional \u20ac7. The project has also won awards at several international festivals.<\/p>\n

The museum hall presents images that create optical illusions in the human mind, 3D holograms, and early animated image sequences, explaining the background and execution of the illusions with wall texts in Estonian and English. Young guides were also circulating around the hall, tactfully and without being pushy approaching visitors to explain how the illusions work. When necessary, they also helped with their hints to \u201csee the invisible\u201d.<\/p>\n

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MoI! With these measurements, could I make it into the NBA basketball league?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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The museum\u2019s two upper floors introduce illusions created using light, optics, viewing angles, and the physical properties of objects, following the familiar science-centre principle of trying things out for yourself. There are several excellent selfie photo spots, but alongside the visual wow experience, we also experienced several moments of amazement and insightful \u201caha\u201d moments ourselves. Let the accompanying photographs speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

In summary, it can be said that the two places have their own audiences, and they do not compete particularly strongly with each other. For a more adult taste, the Museum of Illusions offered genuinely high-quality content for the price of admission, so it gets a strong thumbs-up from me.<\/p>\n

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Museum of Fun<\/strong>, Viru 13\/15, Tallinn<\/span><\/a>
Open Mon\u2013Sun 9\u201321
www.mof.ee
<\/span><\/a><\/span>Email info@mof.ee<\/a><\/p>\n

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Museum of Illusions,<\/strong>
Rataskaevu 10, Tallinn<\/span><\/a>
Open Mon\u2013Fri 10\u201319, Sat\u2013Sun 10\u201320
www.museumofillusions.ee
<\/span><\/a><\/span>Email info@museumofillusions.ee<\/a><\/p>\n

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The visual world around us is constantly changing. Watching the social media habits of my friends\u2019 children and my own … Read more<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":161427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[28072,28073,28074,28075,13532,22530,27113],"class_list":["post-161476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-visiting-tallinn","tag-museum-of-illusions","tag-fun-museums","tag-museum-of-fun","tag-museum","tag-family-activities","tag-childrens-activities"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t