The FATHOM immersive art experience downtown is a perfect example of how local artists are working hard to keep Portland weird. In part inspired by other interactive art installations such as Meow Wolf and Hopscotch, FATHOM is unique in that every single piece of art — whether it be an enormous, glamorous clam bed, a multimedia Dr. Seuss-esque creature mounted on the wall, an animated video clip of dragon-like fish looking perplexed, eyeballs peeking out from every crack and crevice, sexy mermaids or neon-bright barnacles — is handmade by a local Portland artist.
FATHOM is put on by a local creative collective, Roboto Octopodo, and features over 100 artists and volunteers who help bring it to life. The result is an ever-changing, undersea-inspired art experience that demands engagement from the get-go. The oceanic theme is an ode to the PNW’s beautiful landscapes and diversity of wildlife. In a way, the experience is like a crossover between a multi-media, immersive art exhibit and an escape room — without the urgency of the escape room, or the desire to leave, really. In fact, I only spent a few hours at the exhibit, and I plan to go back at least once or twice to ogle at all the details that are impossible to see the first time around before the exhibit closes down on Feb. 28, 2025.
A scientist in a lab coat greeted me at the entrance, gave me a cryptic spiel about the strange, otherworldly, undersea-inspired world I was about to enter, handed me a pencil and a clipboard and invited me to partake in research. Research entails decoding strange text to solve the great mystery of FATHOM or completing a scavenger hunt for pieces of art that could otherwise be easily overlooked.
Through the scavenger hunt, I had a delightful journey through the undersea sphere. I had the pleasure of meeting “The OG Slimy Baby.” I ogled at Marx nests, stood in Ooze Tubes and let their sad monster noises and chaotic gibberish envelop me. I also said hello to a “spinning-tooth Grackle” and walked through many portals and voids.
On my visit, other items on the list were “A frilly collared fish,” “The unseeable hand” and “Alice (yes. That one).” The research prompts are constantly changing and evolving, guaranteeing a unique experience every single time. While much of the art in the installation will be there through February, other pieces are only there for brief periods of time, before they are built upon or replaced by new creative works.
Jason Hutchinson, one of the core visionaries for this project, iterated the importance of giving yourself ample time to pay attention to the multitude of details throughout the experience.
“We want people to slow down and really start looking around,” he said.
In slowing down and looking around for a few hours, I only encountered a fraction of this world put forth by Portland’s creatives. In the nooks and crannies of a ship — one of several elaborate structures in the exhibit produced by Hutchinson — laid an abundance of other artists’ creations: dinosaurs squaring off, Star Wars-inspired dioramas, mini Voodoo Donuts boxes, robots, sea creatures, mushroom gardens and colorful seashells. Just outside of the ship, a gallery of framed two-dimensional and three-dimensional art covered a wall, featuring tentacled camels and elephants, dinosaurs squaring off and miniature jellyfish lounging around in a miniature speakeasy.
To the left of the wall, and up a little bit, large, sparkly jellyfish chandeliers floated casually above the pathway below. I wondered if perhaps they were having a chill, jazzy dance party. One of the interactive rooms in the exhibit made me feel like I was being abducted by aliens — or maybe like I was inside the Geometry Dash game. Either way, it brought technological soundscapes, laser lights and metallic, reflective surfaces together in a weirdly futuristic manner.
In this funky, 8,000-square-foot universe of sensory galore, the visual art was only a fraction of the experience. Different soundscapes highlighted the technological and music talents of this wide-ranging group of arts. The glub-glub of bubbles rising to a surface and popping, running water and splashing noises followed me through the mouth of a giant angler fish. In other parts of the exhibit, I listened to distorted voices chattering mixed together, a bewitching chorus of sirens, weird buzzing noises, electronic beats and an infinite loop of the mechanical noises of a guttural engine whirring to a stop. I felt the soft fur of a multimedia unicorn creature, reached into a void made of felt, laid down on a crinkly, metallic clam bed and stood inside a UFO structure, enveloped by lasers. I pressed buttons, pulled levers, watched clips of robotic claymation in the windows of a shipwreck, crawled in and out of ooze tubes and was angrily rumbled at by the mother of a Slimy Baby nest.
And yet, my fraction of an experience in FATHOM is only a fraction of Roboto Octopodo’s larger vision for a permanent, immersive art experience in Portland. In these artists’ grand plan, FATHOM will be one of several rooms in PRISM — an art show where a series of rooms represent the colors of the rainbow. If and when this project comes to fruition, FATHOM’s submerged, aquatic world will be rebuilt in the blue room.
Hutchinson explained that much of Roboto Octopodo’s vision involves the uplifting of local artists with opportunities to showcase their work, revitalizing Portland’s art scene and creating an immersive art experience unique to Portland — one that could become a staple of the city’s creative culture, for locals and visitors alike. FATHOM is a tentative yet successful start to this conceptualization that has attracted considerable attention in the local art scene thus far. Roboto Octopodo has brought some money in with ticket sales, field trips and renting the space out as a venue.
“The thought was to extend our tentacles into the community,” he said. “This is kind of a giant lure to catch a large shark.”
If Roboto Octopodo can get its tentacles on a permanent space, these artists will be able to go all out in ways that they currently cannot. At their current location on SW 4th Avenue downtown, their space is limited, and the end of their lease is quickly approaching. Several installations will need to be taken apart or destroyed once they begin to break down the exhibit, including both of Hutchinson’s large-scale ships, which are too big to get out of the building in one piece. Other artists’ murals will be painted over, and the work put into crafting seamless soundscapes and lighting effects will not easily transfer to a new space.
“It’s a little bittersweet,” Hutchinson said. “There’s a beauty in temporary art. Not everything lasts forever.”
Tickets are $22 each, though discounts are available for Oregon Trail Card users, youth, seniors and military personnel. Also, if you go within seven days of your birthday, you get free admission with the promo code CLAMCAKE. Even if you pay full price, it is well worth the visit — for the sake of supporting dozens upon dozens of local artists and for the sake of reveling in this bizarre, dazzling, absurd underwater world of spinning-tooth Grackles, and nests of adorable Slimy Babies.
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